Which team to pick?

[Mr_lemon]

I'm a fairly competent coach who have played Blood Bowl on and off since 3rd Edition. I'm about to start a team in a league in a couple of weeks and scanning through the rulebook (yet again) I don't know which team to pick. There are so many to choose from. Back in the old days of 3rd edition (when there was only 12 teams to choose from) I played a lot of Dwarfs with good results, but since picking up Blood Bowl again from LRB 5 and beyond I first started an Ogre Team that did okay over it's 30 games or so W-D-L was 14-3-13 which is at least decent for a low-tier team. After that I've played Nurgle for about 20 games with a result of 14-4-2 or something like that.

But for this new league (Unsure how long the league will be but probably around 8-10 games before play-offs) I wanted to try some different and at first I was thinking about Lizardmen since the thought of 7 ST4+ players and 4 MA8 players on the pitch sounds good but I am worried that Lizardmen might become boring since there are only two separate positionals and the Saurus skill up slowly and the Skinks are really restricted in skill choices to Agility skills. I feel that it might become like playing ogres, waiting for that precious double or stat roll.

The team I seek is a competitive, yet challenging team that opens up for some freedom to develop the team and it's positional's in different directions-I have gone over every team in the book and evaluated team in my head and the teams that speaked the most to me was these teams:

Chaos Dwarf: Somewhat familiar to me as an OLD Dwarfplayer, with the Bull Centaur as an exciting challenge to use, and a competitive team, but on the other hand I've played somewhat bashy teams before.

(Pro) Elves: The thought of developing a good passing game speaks to me since I've mostly played running games with my earlier team except my ogre team that at a late stage developed quite a good passing option. I haven't really played an agile and low-armoured team like this before, but since the two other coaches in the league that I know are good players are leaning towards more bashy teams (Khemri and Orcs), I don't know anything about the rest of the coaches' skills and team choices and I'm thinking that Elves might add some diversity.

Necromantic: I like the wide spread of positionals of the team and the many options for development that are open to the team. 6 Players with MA6+ and AG3, 2 ST4 Players, 5 Different player types, 2 skillcategories for every type of positional except the zombies. Looks like great fun.

Chaos Pact: Looks like a fun, competitive yet complex team to play and the Marauders possibilities to skill in any directions seems limitless.

Underworld: Like Chaos Pact the team looks fun on paper but I don't know how fun it is IRL.

Yes, I know all of you have different favouriteteams and really dislikes some of them but I'm asking for input to my reasoning and conformation that I evaluate the teams properly. So which team shall I play and why? As I said I look for a competitive team with flexibility and that is a bit different then my previous teams, Dwarf, Nurgle and Ogres...

[otherdave]

From what you've written, and reading between the lines, it almost seems like you want to be talked out of taking Elves. So I say play Elves!

[mattgslater]

I think you should try Lizardmen before you give up on them out of hand. It looks like it's hard to skill Saurus, but the truth is that you will get your opportunity. Lizardmen are a good team for quick defensive scores, meaning it's easy to get Side Step on your Skinks. This in turn helps you build quick, mobile cages, giving you an opportunity to make relatively safe 5+ handoffs inside the cage, if you can secure it well enough early (not hard, not hard at all). The speed and power of the Saurus, and the speed and skill of the Skink, mean that they can capitalize quickly on offensive foibles, and turn the game very quickly. If you can assure the W by halftime by generating a 2-point lead or a 2-man advantage with at least 10 men of your own, you can have a lot of courage in those risky 5+ rolls. This superlative quick-strike defense also spreads SPP around like water, cutting into your body count, and making your team economics much more manageable.

Disclaimer: Only try handing off to a Saurus on T7-8, only if you have a TRR to use, only after doing your likely and/or important stuff, only if you can keep the movement contingent on the handoff to a low priority (not just Moves, but cage advancement) until the handoff is safe and no other movement is important, and only if you have control of the game. But if you really are an above average coach, these conditions will be met frequently.

[Smeborg]

Mr Lemon: If you are a good coach, and it sounds like you are, then you may find the (Pro-) Elves to be rather too easy (this was my experience).

I can recommend Underworld as seeming to meet your desire for both challenge and fun. Sounds like Necro, C-Pact and CDs would all work for you too. They all pose development challenges.

All the best, whatever you choose.

[mattgslater]

Necro are both very good and lots of fun. They're a matchup team with a head start on a wicked positioning game, so they respond very well to veteran play. Take tons of Stand Firm and Side Step, along with your heavy use of Block and Dodge. A Necromantic Wight is extremely cool, because he can be morphed into many different roles. Ghouls are cool too, but they die a lot.

[B SIDE]

If your record with Ogres was that good, maybe you should play Humans. They're flexible.

[Digger Goreman]

Necros are THE challenge and THE reward of Blood Bowl: You can't buy up all your positionals at start (without cutting out all/down to one reroll), have no Ag 4 crutches, and (except for the easily injured ghouls) no personal rerolls... your wolves can easily fall prey to block-skilled targets and their own frenzy, your wights and golems are overcosted and once your ball handlers (max of six if you have all the Ag 3s) are targetted properly, your ability to control the ball is gravely problematic....

On the other putrified hand: you have blazingly fast claws, cheap and durable linemen, and a truly tough roadblocker.... Once the wolves and ghouls pick up blodge, they become fast and hard to deal with.... One double on a werewolf and you're in business... two doubles and you're over the top with a Juggy-MB terror...! Zombies are cheap, replaceable, and can be added for a fouling campaign (who cares when zed gets sent off if you have lots of them?)....

Tactics is a matter of flexible thinking.... Was it Matt who said you play bash with them versus agility/soft teams and soft with them vs bash? Yep....

A fragile, edgy team with lots of potential... best choice in BB for real coaches...

[nick_nameless]

Aren't Necros the winningest team in LRB6 according to Plasmoid's records?

I would say that hardly makes them a challenging team.

Slann, underworld, vampire, Chaos Pact are all challenging, but can be competitive if coached well.

Edit: marauders are among the most versatile players in the game, so maybe Chaos Pact is for you.

[Digger Goreman]

Aren't Necros the winningest team in LRB6 according to Plasmoid's records?

I would say that hardly makes them a challenging team....

Limited sample size without accompanying assumptions and restrictions.... He did what he could with what he had.... What he had was impossible to quantify.... It fit well in our "minute soundbite" society.... (Having had just enough Math/testing courses to understand the need, I'm always wanting to see the "12 pages of assumptions, etc." that these newscasters fail to cover as they whip out all these "facts"....) Again, no reflection on Plasmoid's gallant attempt, but decisions made from that "record(s)" cannot be properly supported....

[MKL]

Aren't Necros the winningest team in LRB6 according to Plasmoid's records?

http://www.plasmoids.dk/bbowl/LRB6Stats.htm

Weren't that “lrb6 data” (Necro at 57,55%) about the proposed, experimental lrb6 roster? The roster with the price cut on Flesh Golems who was rejected?
I'm asking because actual (crp) Necros are the same of lrb5: and the "lrb5 data" in the same page say that Necro were at 44,84%.

[mattgslater]

What a difference 10k makes...

[Wanchor]

I like the Chaos Dwarf team a lot, and while you may have a bit of learning to do to use hobgoblins and centaurs effectively, elves are are going to necessitate the most drastic change in play style. Go ahead, develop the pass game, have fun.

Also, don't play Necromantic.

[TheDoctor]

If you really want to try something different from what you played before, play elves.

If you want a more challenging yet versatile team, play Underworld.

[Digger Goreman]

What a difference 10k makes...

I roll my eyes and wryly chuckle every single day over this illogical "reasoning" and returning of the Flesh Golem to 110k.... Totally left field....

Meh, what can you do...?

[Lunchab1es]

Necros

Digger Goreman advocating necromantic?! NO WAY!

Kidding aside, both Chaos Pact and Underworld are fun teams who can seriously diversify each player. Both will also provide a challenge as tier 1.5 teams...they have my vote for you.

Necro are fun too though