Nurgles Rotters/Undead/Necromancers

[stevros74]

Well, after an absence of 10 years I have donned my coaching hat once more to take on all comers with my new blood bowl team. However, it seems that 10years is a very long time in Blood Bowl. The NAF have collapsed, Nurgles Rotters have perished and what's with the funky blocking dice!

Cutting to the chase, I have recieved the startling news that Blood Bowl minis can only be purchased in the UK by mail order and that the only outlet in the UK that sells Blood Bowl minis is to be found in Nottingham. Is this true, fellow Britons?

Also (and more importantly!) can I mix Rotters with Undead players for an official team?

[JJB]

About UK only, I don't know, but mail order, definitely. BB game boxes are sold in some shops though.

As to the rosters available, the best for you is to check the Living Rule Book, downloadable at www.bloodbowl.com The new version of the LRB is due to be out soon, but the slight changes that will be added do not concern rotters and undead.

[stevros74]

Cheers, JJB, much appreciated.

Would an undead team be a wise choice for a rookie like me?

[Dropdeadfred]

yea undead is a allround good team IMO

[JJB]

Cheers, JJB, much appreciated.

You're most welcome.
If there's one thing you can be sure to expect from this forum, it's replies. People are very active here. I don't guarantee the quality of all the replies though...

Would an undead team be a wise choice for a rookie like me?

That's a difficult question, to which I will resist the temptation to provide that eternal answer: "Well, it all depends on your playing style..."

I will assume you've never played BB 3rd Ed, released in 1994. The current LRB is just slight amendments on that 3rd Ed.
If it is indeed 2nd you were playing, although I have personally never experienced that game, I understand that the two main differences between 2nd Ed on the one hand and 3rd Ed / LRB on the other hand are:

1- there are far fewer (still many left though) opportunities to play a game based on pure bashing - see the rule "only one blitz allowed per team per turn" - while agility is far more important (the mechanics of dodge have been greatly changed). Thus, a team of elves actually stands a real chance to win and survive against a chaos team under the new system.

2- there are practically no possibilities for mixing races, beyond goblins, the new (rookie)" big guys" and star players. Therefore, questions of mixing races will everytime get you straight answers of "no". There are experimental teams based on mixed races that are being tested by GW. Look for BB Magazine (now stopped, and assimilated in the new Fanatic Mag) or the 2003 and 2004 Annuals, also produced by the Fanatic team.
fumbbl.com is an online BB league that is very up-to-date on official and experimental teams. Check those guys out.


Back to your original question, if you really want to get the feel of the new BB, undead can be a good choice because it is a reasonably good all-round team. The problem is that they are probably going to be discontinued soon, as three new teams now benefit from "undeath"- vampires (more a fun team that playable guys), necromantic (probably because the closest to the original undead) and khemri (basically, skeletons and mummies, so don't expect much successful ball-handling).
Rotters have re-appeared. They are a plain chaos team, but with slightly modified chaos warriors and no access to apothecaries. Their start will always be difficult, but if you hold on to it, you should start reaping the benefits after 5-6 matches.

My suggestion would be for you to try orcs. They're reasonably cheap, have a wide range of players and you can afford to make a couple of mistakes when playing them.

Good luck!

[stevros74]

Thanks again !!

Yeah, I must admit, the Black Orcs are fun! During one game, they had inflicted 2 deaths, 1 serious injury and 3 knockouts...by turn 5!!

What's your team of choice, JJB?

[JJB]

My favourite team in terms of fun to play is chaos. Skavens come close.

However, for a tournament or a short-term league, because chaos have expensive rerolls and no starting skills, I prefer wood elves who start with everything that's necessary.

Chaos are fun not so much because of their bashing power, but rather because of their development potential - everything, whether +ag, +mvt etc. is good and additionally EVERY player has access to strength skills (skill access is a crucial aspect of team development, making all elves and dwarves also favoured in terms of long-term development). And chaos have no flaws so to speak (e.g. everyone has ag3), which goes hand in hand with the fact that every stat increase is good.
Along the same lines, CWs make excellent runners with their st4 and their not so major lack of speed - that's why CWs are my favourite players overall.
And mutations are fun!
=> Did I make my case for chaos clear enough?


Skavens have gutter runners who are excellent players yet still reasonably cheap. Mutations also allow for lots of crazy agility related stuff. Unfortunately, I find that team hampered by only ag3 linemen. More generally, I personally never count on a team with no ag4 players to get any decent "running around", and even more so ball-handling, at least for a tournament / short-term league. I've had so many matches where I kept on rolling 2 when picking up the !*Y@#T(**!&#*&!_@!!%R%?@*(!!! ball when playing humans or chaos. Skavens have those gutter runners, but their throwers only have ag3, and their linement cannot dodge around.

Hence my regular decision to go for elves if I really want to win games. And wood elves are the most able at stealing the ball from the opponent, turning him over and over again, because of:
1- their speed (skavens also have it, but don't have matching agility, so they cannot go to as many places as WEs).
2- their wardancers - give them strip ball, and every cage-reliant opponent will cower in fear until all possible his ball-carriers get sure hands. By which time your two wardancers will also have gained tackle .

But theoretically, every team, except from the really weird ones (let alone little guys teams, i.e. gobbos and halflings) that is those fresh from the experimental stage, i.e. khemri, vampire and ogres, can win matches. Some will struggle more at tournaments because of the lack of skills, while others will do better for low TR but will have limited development (e.g. the Norse). Try as many as you can and see which ones you feel the best.

By the way - wood elves, chaos dwarves (because of their combination of hitting power, speed and cheap players + cheap rerolls) and orcs (you know why... ) are IMO the most common winners at tournaments. Skavens are also reasonably good contenders.