BloodBowl LE

[2fish]

Well I finally picked this up and I am getting my ass kicked 8 games, 3 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses. 1 win and 1 draw were complete luck or easy mode feeling sorry for me.

I am in the competition mode (blitz mode) playing as a dark elf team. My one good player got killed (by fucking high elves) and now I lack a person to pick up and play the ball.


My build:

4 blitzers
1 runner
6 linemen

1 reroll
1 apothecary
2 assistant coaches
4 cheerleaders

I am looking for tips or thoughts on what can help me improve. I am thinking it will take a whole season just to get a decent team assuming I have no other deaths.

Thanks for your help.

 

[bjj hero]

go straight to www.bbtactics.com and read everything there.

Im assuming you are playing turn based. Darkelves are a tough starting team. There are no big guys, no strength access and no fixed positions so you have to make them what you want. Orcs are a better team to get the basics.

You need more Rerolls. Rerolls win games, a double skull will hapen every 32 2 dice blocks. If you dont have block you will turn over 1/9 blocks.

The runner is nice but in a fix everyone can run the gall on your team. They are all agi 4. Your best bet is to use screens and cages to move the ball. Dont throw 1 dice blocks or roll any dice you do not have to as you fail everything on a 1. So even a sure thing fails every 6th try.

I dont know what skills you have but your team should start:

4 blitzers,
1 runner
6 linemen
2 Rerolls

apothecary is your first purchase. Dont let your runner hog all of the ssp either. Go to the site I mentioned and read. When you get bored of the AI (it will become no challenge at all soon) and want to join a league of human players let me know.

IO play in www.orca-cola.com which plays a league with over 200 coaches. ITs a riot.

 

[2fish]

go straight to www.bbtactics.com and read everything there.

snip.

thanks for the fast reply.
I am in turn based as I think real time would kill me even faster.

Yes my next goal is saving up for another reroll.

My runner generally on picks up the ball passes it and moves into position as a backup should my lineman not be able to make a touchdown.

So my ssp is a lvl 3 blitzer a few lvl 2 linemen and my dead lvl 3 runner. I currently try to make a cage but I tend to end up with one open side


X= player
B= player with ball
|= edge of field
I tend to get

----X-----|
------B---|
----X---X-|


or

-----X
---------X
-------B X
-----X---X


It is really sad to watch the ball roll to all five of my guys and they all fail to pick it up.

Once I get decent at this game i will look into the online games.

 

[bjj hero]

If you are marked you will struggle to catch. There is no +1 on a bouncing ball so its a 3+. Then you get -1 for each marking player.

Your cage should look:
_= empty square
X= player
B= ball carrier
X_X
_B_
X_X


Having said that with darkelves screens are more effective, just make sure that there are tackle zones all around the ball carrier.

the side line is a death trap, it acts as extra players meaning you can be swamped pitch side by the opposition. Go to the middle then bounce to the outside when you are ready to move behind their line.

This game is won on defence, stopping the other player from scoring. This is best done by staying infront of the ball (but keep 1 guy in scoring range incase you free up the ball) with "columns" of 2 players something like

I= sideline
O= opposition player

I_O_O_
I__B__
I_O_O_
I________
I_X__X__X
I_X__X__X

Please note there are 2 squares between each column but only 1 square between the players and the sideline.

So if he blitzes a player he still has no route forward because of the back row. He cannot safely advance and if he cannot advance he cannot score. If he moves his cage forward he will have to finish his turn with his cage players next to your players. Then you can block those away and blitz the ball carrier or dodge back 1 space and set up the same again. It's hard to score if you only move the ball 1 space a turn.

There is lots of strategy to this game. You need to play, watch other peoples replays and read to get better. Dont get attatched to elves, they die a lot. I play Woodelves in a league and they are all armour 7. Your witches, runners and assassins are too so expect to get through a lot of them.

Best of luck.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Orcs are a better team to get the basics.

Sorta. Humans are more balanced so you can get a taste of more varied play styles while picking up basic gameplay... OTOH it can be frustrating to take a jack-of-all-trades team up against a more specialised one, especially before you've had a chance to level up many players.

 

[Meltyman]

ive got few good pointers for ya.

dont play BLITZ mode, only turnbased.

never buy fan factor, assistant coaches or cheering fans.

check out Fumbbl.com its a free java based bloodbowl game. no loading times, fastly moving players and you get to play matchmaking games faster also.

it also has a irc channel to help you out.

 

[bjj hero]

Orcs are a better team to get the basics.

Sorta. Humans are more balanced so you can get a taste of more varied play styles while picking up basic gameplay... OTOH it can be frustrating to take a jack-of-all-trades team up against a more specialised one, especially before you've had a chance to level up many players.

As a taster then yes but Orcs are considered a more powerful team. You have stunty player access for throw team mate, you can take 4 black orcs and 4 blitzers, 2 throwers and a troll. Not a lineman on the whole team, only 2 armour 8 players, the rest 9. 4 strength 4 and a strength 5 with lots of skills straight from the box. They can be intimidating and can clear a pitch of players on a good day.

I prefer to play against humans as they are very average. When they try to play as a speed team their agility lets them down. They are not reliable enough IMO. Go woodelf instead.

But I love that the teams are not balanced in BB, its part of the charm.

 

[2fish]

ive got few good pointers for ya.


never buy fan factor, assistant coaches or cheering fans.
snip

I found cheering fans and fan factor odd so I have yet to buy them but may I ask why no assistant coaches?

They seem like they could help in some rolls I was aiming for 3 once I got my rerolls.


Thanks for all the tips, lets see if my DE team makes is through season 1.

 

[Meltyman]

they are just wasted money. you would need to buy full amounts to make sure it really does give you a reroll IF you roll the right kick (which is 1 out of 11) making you grow your team value for almost meaningles reason.

same goes for fan factor and cheering fans, you basically invest in something that doesent guarantee you much. rather invest in players (and apoth after the first games).

dark elves has served me the best over the years, not the best team to start with

like said above ORCS are the ones i would recommend making for the first team... if you stick with the dark elves take a leader roll for the runner its awesome, 20k reroll !

 

[Continuity]

Orcs are a good team for learning about blocking whilst being fairly robust and forgiving to play. Speaking of learning about blocking, there is an official guide on blocking that is an absolute must read (google for it).

Dark elves are pretty good but not so much as a starting team. General rule of making a team, 3 reros and no more, apoth, no cheerleaders or assistant coaches... This is to stop your team value inflating which is bad. Also take as many people with block as you can and get block as a first skill where you can. Dodge will also be useful with the high AG

 

[Commissar Sae]

Try a norse or amazon team for starters. They're decent all-rounders and the entire norse team has block while all the amazons have dodge, means less of your players down.

The game takes some practice to get good, but once you get the hang of it you can really wreck. At worse, play a chaos team and focus on hurting the enemy as much as possile.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Orcs are a better team to get the basics.

Sorta. Humans are more balanced so you can get a taste of more varied play styles while picking up basic gameplay... OTOH it can be frustrating to take a jack-of-all-trades team up against a more specialised one, especially before you've had a chance to level up many players.

As a taster then yes but Orcs are considered a more powerful team. You have stunty player access for throw team mate, you can take 4 black orcs and 4 blitzers, 2 throwers and a troll. Not a lineman on the whole team, only 2 armour 8 players, the rest 9. 4 strength 4 and a strength 5 with lots of skills straight from the box. They can be intimidating and can clear a pitch of players on a good day.

Yeah, I meant as a general taster. A few games max rather than a campaign or whatever. Orcs are great for getting a feel for the atmosphere of the game, though... the whole brutal, deadly, limbs-hanging-off-the-stands atmosphere the game sells itself as.

I've always had terrible problems with throwing stunties... 4 out of 5 times my troll just eats them.

As you say, though, Orcs are great for the steamroller play style, where you win because too many opposition players are KO'd, injured or dead for them to field enough players to stop you scoring at will. Only team I've ever used that was better for that was a high level Chaos team, and that was mostly because my Minotaur was a killing machine... but getting a high level Chaos team is a long, long process and they lack the initial defensive strengths Orcs also have.

Of course, for something kind of in between Orcs and Humans there's the Nords. Not sure if I'd recommend them as a starting team, though.

I prefer to play against humans as they are very average. When they try to play as a speed team their agility lets them down. They are not reliable enough IMO. Go woodelf instead.

Humans can't do a running game for shit and to get a good throwing game going you have to seriously compromise your defence, so yeah, not good for either type. Woodelf are good for a running game and fantastic at a throwing game... and if you end up liking the running game over the throwing game there's always the Skaven.

 

[2fish]

Just finnished my third season/event came in first (rather than second) because the ai decided to just sit on the ball. I found it odd that the high elves just sat there, yes I did box them in so any move meant at least one dodge, but they could have broken it if they tried. I think the easy mode just said well you scored 2 time we scored 2 times... time for a nap. I can see why one might get bored of the ai if they keep this up.

I will be sure to look up the blocking guide.

I think I will stick with my dark elves for the first round then go try a bashy team.


Do you get to just keep playing campaign mode as long as you want or does it end? I mean I just got my first trophy and I want to know what it means and where it will go.

 

[bjj hero]

I've not played the campaign all the way through, I think it just keeps going. I dont think the difficulty affects the AI play style, I think the opposing teams just get a higher team value (like that amazon team with multiple str4 players, one of zons key weeknesses is all str 3. Luckily the AI does not capitalise on it very well).

You will find that once you start winning you have cracked the AI and will win continuously. Its probably time to play real coaches then. I warn you that cyanides matchmaking league is full of vile specimens who farm teams of super players and become foul mouthed if you start winning and quit early if you injure their key players. Joining a league was the better option for me, but you only tend to get invites through matchmaking...

For your team, take kick soon, elves can really capitalise from a good kick off. Kick short against fast teams like woodelves and deep against slow baawling teams like dwarf. I'd also advise taking dodge before block for elves and get at least 2 players with wrestle instead of block. Its infuriating against slow teams and frees the ball better than block.

Of course, for something kind of in between Orcs and Humans there's the Nords. Not sure if I'd recommend them as a starting team, though.

I came 24th out of over 200 in the NAF championship (used to be the bloodbowl at Warhammer world) this year using Norse, I did play 2 stunty teams out of my 6 matches though... the atrocities.

Do you play in a league? PC or table top?