Tuesday 3 October 2017

Chaos! A team of Claws and tentacles!


In the fantasy of Blood bowl, every faction of the old and new worlds gave up war. Orcs and dwarves fought on the blood bowl pitch rather than on battlefields. What’s more Nuffle became the greatest religion.

The chaos armies and the chaos gods also became obsessed with blood bowl. That is essentially why the reality wasn’t destroyed by chaos. As ridiculous as this alternate Warhammer reality is Chaos are a great team and has 3 variants and as time goes on id imagine Games workshop will add more.

However, all these teams are difficult to use and are low tiered teams well why is this?


Chaos

I’m going to be a bit briefer with each team this week as largely all three teams play the same have the same downsides and have the same advantages.

Chaos are not yet in the Death Zone books however they have been a staple part of blood bowl since the start. There players have access to mutations strength and general skills there all ag 3 (So it’s easy to level up the chaos warriors!) They have the minotaur which in my opinion is the worst big guy but he works ok with the team as long as he’s blocking each turn.

Each player can effectively be turned into whatever you want it to be it a lineman and a blitzer and so on…. So why are they difficult to use?

Simply because they start with no skills whatsoever. There is no block, no dodge, no sure hands catch. Therefore, the team initially burns through re-rolls very fast and most plays are initially difficult.

They cage well and are a bit faster than orcs. But they don’t have the skills to exploit the gaps for a running game (initially) and don’t have the skills for a passing game. Normally a chaos team takes 10-15 games to get into its stride then it’s one of the best teams.

What’s more you have to build various players into the roles above. An experienced player would have in his head what beastmen he wants to do what but for a new guy, a team that already has players with defined positions (A catcher in a human team won’t become a blitzer for example) would be a lot easier to use.

Mikes starter team:
4 x Chaos warriors
7 x Beastmen
3 x rerolls

Tips: Start by getting an apothecary then a minotaur. Get your fourth rerolls after that. With this team try and score a blitz with the same beastmen. You should have one or two that skill up a lot quicker than the others. In order to craft yourself a couple of positions. Make one have sure hands (You’ll thank me later!) As always get your warriors scoring as well. They are the best players in the team and become nightmares later on once they get claws and mighty blow.

Nurgles Rotters

I’m not going to go too detailed into these guys as they are the same as chaos but with only 4 beastmen and in their place rotters which are terrible but cheap to replace. They have decay which means every injury is likely to be a serious one but don’t hold back on firing them!

It does mean that it’ll be the pestigors and the bloaters who will get the skills here. The pestigors should be your blitzers and your bloaters the cage. Interestingly Bloaters and the rotspawn have disturbing presence which is brilliant enmasse. It reduces throws and catches so hand offs by 1 for every player within 3 and stacks so it’s useful to negate throwing plays.

Rotters are slower than chaos teams though. They share all their weaknesses. Rotspawn however is a better big guy. They are slow but have tentacles which is likely to ward off people jumping into your cage.

As above it’s the same as Chaos team really. A good team but difficult for beginners.

Mikes Starter team
4 Pestigor
3 Bloaters
3 Rotters
3 Rerolls

Tips: Get the Rotspawn first then your final Bloater. It’s a bit harder but try and get the Bloaters scoring (They are only AG 2 unfortunately) and make sure your pestigors are focused either into a carrier or blitzer. If a rotter gets a skill id be tempted to fire it! Sounds extreme but when they get injured and get a SI straight away because of decay you’ll get pretty annoyed.

Chaos Renegades

Unlike the other two teams I’ve not played with this one much. However, it was built for a slightly variable chaos team in mind. Access to 3 big guys sounds fun but ultimately will be quite frustrating because if they bonehead or go stupid it leaves a gap in the line that you don’t have Chaos warriors to fill.

What makes them different however is their access to mutations the massive variety of skills their human linemen can take. They can take everything other than agility on a normal roll. Therefore, these linemen can be anything.

The other option is the other races lineman. The orc isn’t going to do much other than sit on the line and get beaten up but you know someone’s gotta do it! The Dark Elf’s AG 4 will be very useful. Animosity not so much so I’d use him as a receiver with a human lineman your team’s thrower. The skaven lineman’s speed here is useful I’d probably build him into a receiver as well. So you have a few options on your running plays.

Like with the other chaos teams though it’ll take time for this team to come into its own as to make a lineman into a good player you’ll need two skills. So like a broken record this team is harder for beginners. However, as an experienced player, I love the make-up of this team and it’s definitely one I want to use down the line. Lots of crazy combinations in here!

Mikes Starter team:
Troll
Ogre
Dark Elf
Skaven
Orc
6 Humans
4 Rerolls

Tips: I didn’t go for him at first but id definitely have the minotaur as my next player then an apothecary. You don’t especially need a apo straight away as all your players are effectively lineman and you shouldn’t really care about them individually until one has 2 skills and is useful! Goblin next! Id level up a marauder to be a passer and another to be a ball carrier. Have the Skaven and the dark elf as your main TD machines their extra speed and access to mutations should make them good at this and means animosity won’t be much of an issue. Surround them with your more ferocious marauders.


That’s all folks! Until next time!

No comments:

Post a Comment