Blood Bowl

The Game Room
1

Blood Bowl is on sale on Steam for 10$, and I considered getting it a while back for 40, so I bought the game today. Unfortunately, it seems to have one hell of a learning curve. I’ve only been playing the turn based mode.

I’ve tried lizards, orcs and humans so far, and I’m just getting crushed, even on easy. The enemy always seems to be unstoppable. In my human match, the enemies just waltzed around my forces seemingly ignoring zones of control completely, whereas I couldn’t even get a catcher away from the throng of little guys at all. My ogre was pathetic, and didn’t do a whole lot for how supposedly awesome he was.

Anyway, I’ll stop complaining, I’m just wondering if anyone has played this game and got the hang of it. What are some basic tips for playing on easy. The game seems like it could be a blast with all the campaigns and tournaments, if I could just figure out how to hang on and play not totally bad.

I got totally pissed off playing as orcs when two turns in a row my players failed to pick up the damn ball. They must coat those balls in butter or something. They’ve made the roll for picking up a ball in front of you harder than the roll to knock someone down, its silly.

2

The funny thing about that game is that it’s actually harder on Easy than on Hard - on Hard the AI never ever takes any chance, which results in them pretty much never taking the ball further than the scrim line. On Easy, it plays like a goof and tries all kind of absurd shit, but due to the nature of the game, it sometimes works.

Anyhoo, tips, tips.

  • picking up the ball is based on Agility. Orc Linemen and Black Orcs have below average Ag, ergo : don’t use them to pick up the ball unless you really have to. Your Throwers have a skill that lets them re-roll the pick-ups, use those instead. Know your team, know the opposing team. What skills do they have on which player ? You have to remember that stuff at all times, otherwise that ball-carrier will Leap over you and you won’t have seen it coming.

  • as a general rule, plan what you want to do on the turn, then do your actions by order of increasing risk. Never do an action that requires a dice roll before you’ve finished with all the ones that don’t, don’t try a 4+ action before throwing a two-die block, don’t throw a 2-die block with a guy who doesn’t have Block if there’s another one you could throw with a guy that does etc…

  • Always, always, ALWAYS expect your next roll to screw you, even if it’s a re-rolled 2+ throw. Plan for that, count on it.

  • corollary : sometimes, you just have to wing it and try to score with a series of ridiculously convoluted 6+ rolls. Sometimes that works, too.

  • Which brings us to minimalism : you want your strategy to involve as few dice rolls as possible. If you don’t need to throw that block right now to get the ball forward (or stomp on the ball carrier’s face), then don’t throw it, at least not until you’ve done the essentials. It’s all about prioritizing.
    In practical terms, for example, this means that when you receive the kick, you should a) move one of your back fielders to a square next to it (tackle zone on the ball in case you get a turnover, so it’s just a bit harder to sneak a TD against), and b) not try to pick it up with a second player until you’ve moved **all **of the frontliners into position, thrown your easy scrim line blocks and have nothing else to do.

  • Don’t be too afraid to get out of tackle zones, with average AG it’s only a 3+ roll as long as you’re not moving into another one. If you still haven’t used a reroll that turn, it’s pretty safe. Goblins (the little guys that kept waltzing around your defense) are even better : they get to automatically reroll failed dodges, and ignore all dodging modifiers to boot. Playing as lizards, your Skinks can do the same.

  • In defense, don’t put your guys right next to theirs : that’s just giving them an opportunity to block you. You want to create a network of interconnecting tackle zones while denying them as many opportunities to punch you as possible. Optimally, your opponent should only get his one blitz during his turn, and that blitz should not be able to open a tackle-free path.

  • The opposite is true on the offence, of course. You want to be in contact so you can put as many of his guys’ faces to the ground as possible.

  • Pushing people over the sidelines and trampling key players : don’t feel bad about it, it’s good strategy, and the computer won’t mind. A human opponent probably will, however. Which makes it all the more hilarious :p.

  • Team re-rolls are awesome. You want three or four at creation, even if that means not fielding all the specialty players you could. They’re much more expensive down the road.

  • Big Guys can’t use team rerolls. Unless they’re somehow integral to the turn’s strategy, move them last, 'cause them causing a stupid turnover is always unpleasant.

  • speaking of team management : don’t let a few players hog all of the experience. I know it’s tempting to use that super Blitzer with the 5 Strength and Sure Hands to score over and over again, but it’ll screw you in the long run because when that guy gets taken out (and he will) the rest of your team will be useless. Remember : even a quick pass one square long gives 1 XP. Which means an experience level next time that player gets selected as MVP. It’s especially important to exp up your linemen when you get the chance - they’re the back bone of your team.

  • Pickup the boring skills before the flashy ones. Your attackers should get Block if you don’t start with it, your defenders get Tackle. If you roll a double, it might be more interesting to go for the Block+Dodge combo instead of an increase in stat (unless that stat is ST. You always want more ST.). You probably want at least one Dirty Player on the roster to deal with nuisances like Big Guys or Star Players.

  • Orcs are awesome, because they can do everything. Rough play ? Yup. Passing game ? Yup. Dodgy game ? Yup, that’s where the goblins come in. In a pinch, they can even try for the famous one turn TD using Troll+thrown goblin. Always a crowd pleaser, that one.

Finally :

  • Thisis an awesome site. Some of the info’s a bit dated since most of the articles were written for older versions of the game (esp. the suggested starting team make-ups) but other than that, it’s a goldmine.
3

Thanks for all the tips! Gotta go try it again. I guess I’ll play on normal difficulty and see how it goes.

4

I actually won a game! I started a campaign as Orcs, and my first game was against Skaven. I thought they’d be getting a zillion receivers out there and scoring a ton, but instead I shut them out.

First half:

They got the ball, and started to move some players into good positions to catch, but I managed to limit that. My teams strength on the line was good, and I tried to squish the receivers as much as a possible.

I ended up pushing them back into their own zone, and their ball handler was way back deep. They never threw the ball at all, but I managed to injure some guys and try to keep the pressure on. I held them for all 8 turns of the first half.

At the end of the first half, they had 4 guys in the medic area, and I didn’t have any major injuries to my guys. It seemed like they were trying to go mano e mano with my guys.

Second half:

This started out BAD. They kicked to me, and right away, my damn thrower failed the roll to pick up the ball. I had moved a couple other guys to support the guy who was supposed to pick up the ball. Unfortunately, on their turn, they got a couple guys in position and picked up the ball.

On the plus side, I had move a group of three guys in position to support the ball on the turn before, and I ended up using a reroll to get a knocked down die on the ball handler. On my second turn, my line was doing good, and territorial I was ok. I got the ball back, and my line was doing well.

The next couple turns, things were slow going, as they had a lot of penetration, and I wasn’t able to move forward that much. However, I had a blitzer that was free as a result of some enemy lineman guys who were on the floor.

The blitzer was on the left side of the field, and there wasn’t much opposition on that side, everyone was either in the center or near my qb. I know they said Orcs are bad at catcher, but I figured it was my best chance, so I threw to the blitzer, and he caught it.

I battled and positioned players as much as I could to help the receiver. On their next turn, they tried to attack my ball handler, but they fell on the ground, and it was my turn. I couldn’t get to the endzone yet that turn, but I got real close, plus I was able to move three guys up to act as blockers, and I koed a guy with my star play as a result of a throng of three of my guys attacking him and getting some kind of special good roll.

The next turn, the kraven tried to catch me but they had no chance. I was worried there would be a dice roll to just run into the endzone (cause it seems everything has a roll in this game) but nope, I scored.

On their next possession, they got one guy through into my territory, and had a second guy for a bit. I was doing everything I could to hold on, pummeling the receivers as much as I could.

On the last turn of the game, they tried to throw to ball to a receiver that had just gotten open, but the QB fumbled on the throw, and I won.

It was a lot of fun, and crazy now that I understand how to play a bit better. Reading that bloodzone website you linked, helped a lot. Its fun playing a smashmouth style and setting up the second half to achieve your victory.

5

Crap, now I wanna get this while it’s on sale, but I’m in Japan on business and silly Steam won’t let me make a purchase with an american credit card while I have a Japanese IP. >_<

6

You could paypal a friend and have them gift it to you.

7

This game is pissing me off again. Its soooo hard to stop the darn Wood Elves. You can’t move your guys anywhere without failing an agility check (had to roll a 5 or 6 just to move my guys away), and they can waltz right into your backfield, and use their mobility to go wherever, whenever and smash up whoever they want.

I lost 0-4, and every time I got the ball, they would get into the backfield, cram 20 lineman against my ball handler, force a fumble, and in the next turn score. Supposedly their team was at 960 points and mine at 1020 points, but they were WAY WAY better. They must have had Tom Brady and Adrian Peterson on that team.

I fumbled the ball trying to pass once, and the ball magically teleported to my touchdown line. The Elves WERE WAY back from my touchdown line but they managed to travel the whole distance of the field, avoiding all my guys and picked up the ball.

I don’t understand how you could possibly compete with those Elves with a big slow team like the Orcs. I’m going to play a couple more games and see how it goes, but right now, this game is just pissing me off.

I’m supposedly the strong team, but everytime the elves attacked they succeeded. They never failed a strength based check, except one time with a Both fall down die.

8

Yup, elves can be annoying that way. Especially their damn Wardancers. They do have their weaknesses though.

Individual elves have better base stats than just about anyone. They all have 4 Agility, and their Catchers have Dodge on top of that, which means they pretty much don’t give a hoot about tackle zones.

Their downside is that a) they’re retardedly expensive, and thus can’t afford to have many reserves or re-rolls and b) they have papier maché armor. I would also add c) their Big Guy is completely useless. Yeah, it’s big, strong and unkillable. It’s also essentially just a fixed obstacle.

Well, except their catchers they all have strength 3, just like most of your orcs. Two elves on one orc, that orc is going down. Their Wardancers come with Block+Dodge out of the gate, making them extremely annoying to knock out as well.

However, they have armor 7 compared to your 10. Which means that while when they knock you down, you’re quite likely to be good to go on the next turn, they roughly have one in four chances to go down for the count. Forget running a passing game against them : on the attack, make a big dumb cage around your ball carrier, move up one inch at a time, and focus entirely on breaking skulls. With any luck, you’ll be playing 11 against 8 or 7 by half-time. And then, things become more easy somehow :smiley:

This also means that over the length of a season, a W.Elf team will accumulate a LOT more lasting injuries than any other. Which is in the AI’s disfavor, because it never fires a player, no matter how useless it has become.

So yeah. Wood Elves are definitely one of the upper tier teams in BBowl. But they’re not magic - play them if you get the time, you’ll see. You’ll get equally frustrated by their fondness for the KO box :wink:

9

I just bought the game and am installing it now, but having little 40k and no BB experience, what team should I start with? Does it not matter, or is one better than the others for learning the basics of the game?

10

Orcs and Humans are nice and vanilla, good for trying out most playing styles and fairly powerful in their own right. Dwarves, Lizardmen and Goblins on the other hand are fairly specialized and probably require a bit more experience to play right.
As evidenced by the fact the AI can’t play them for shit.

But you should really read or at least skim the LRB rules (pdf warning) before you start playing, if only to know what stat does what, when there are dice rolls, how blocks work etc…

11

I got the DVD last week at Game Stop for only $20. It plays a little slow on my PC though and I haven’t had time to play more than a few games. I am trying to learn the control and it seems a little buggy so far. I also got my butt kicks in 2 games and tied the Skavens with a Dwarven team 0-0. The only thing that went well were many Skaven serious injuries.

I need to read through all the hints in this thread tonight and try the game again. I might try to install in on a newer PC to see if it helps.

I played the heck out of the old DOS game and loved it. So I hope I get the hang of this new version.

12

Well I got my butt kicked with the humans, and while my Ork team fared better I never seemed to get ahead on points, but the wood elves are awesome. The position play can be challenging, and it’s frustrating when something goes long and you lose multiple players quickly, but in general they’re a lot of fun.

I’m having trouble telling though, what exactly is the difference between the wood and dark elves?

13

The cpu cheats at dice, and their are a lot of dice int his game, so yeah… playing against the cpu is NOT fun.
I’d only get it for the multiplayer

14

I’m a big fan of the tabletop game (Fantasy and 40k, not Blood Bowl in particular). Before I consider getting this I need to know: How are the skaven? They’re mah bois and I don’t want to play a game where they suck ass.

15

They havent been nerfed, their as fast as they were in the tabltop game, and they can field Rat Ogre’s to.

But like i siad, the cpu will end being just as agile because they tilt the dice their way. But if you plan to play multiplayer and you can deal witht he ir fragileness, yes their a great team

16

Wood Elves are faster, and flimsier, while DEs are a tad sturdier.
Their positional players are also very different : W.Elves are focused almost exclusively on their passing game, with up to 4 catchers, only 2 Blitzers and even those blitzers have skills that make them good at the catching game.

Dark Elves are more flexible : they can have up to 4 blitzers, their “catchers” (the Witch Elves) are also Frenzied and can put quite a bit of hurt in their own right, not to mention they’re not restricted in that department by pansy-ass ST 2. I’m not entirely sure what role Assassins are supposed to play, something like a unique sort of Dirty Player I guess. Never had much success with them.
All of this makes the D.Elves more adaptable IMO : against actual bashy teams like Orcs or Chaos, they can rely on a solid dodgy passing game to score and avoid physical contact. Against light teams like Skavens or W.Elves, D.Elves can switch to a more brutal playbook.

Can you tell they’re one of my favorite teams ? :smiley:

Oh ? Cite ? I know a lot of people on the Cyanide board whine about that, but then people whined about it when I played JavaBowl too, so I just chalked it up to general failure to grasp basic statistics and confirmation bias. Has the cheating been conclusively proven or owned up by Cyanide ?
Not that I’m defending the single player game - the AI is pure shit. Unimaginative, plays every team the same way, completely bollocks at team management… An average player can easily get streaks of 4-0 victories using frickin’ gobboes against it. The game is definitely 100x better in multiplayer… assuming you don’t run into a cheat or an asshole :confused:

Come to think about it, we could get a SDMB League going if there’s enough of us.

17

I would second encouraging others to read the rules from the board game. It makes the intricacies of the rules and some of the strategy much clearer.

I’ve seen nothing to indicate the computer cheats at the dice rolls. Cite?

18

Over at the Cyanide forums the more sensible folk seem to be attributing the problem to confirmation bias.

19

I would also add that anybody thinking cursed matches where everything you try fails while your opponent rolls fucking sixes and POWs every friggin’ time goddammit are a PC exclusive has obviously never played the board game competitively :stuck_out_tongue:

20

I ended up playing a couple more games with my Orcs. The entire competition I was in for the first round of the season, was all filled by agile teams, and I ended up getting a 0-1, and a 0-4 later on.

I started league mode with real time games (which I thought was the blitz option, but that is separate). I won the first two games, but then I discovered the kickoff system.

Two kickoffs in a row gave the kicking team free turns. In real time matches I do pretty well, but if the kickoff team gets a free turn, I have almost no chance to get the ball and not get pile-drivered. I ended up losing the third game in my season 4-5 after getting that roll go against me twice on the kickoff.

I know that’s luck based, so I’m just waiting to see when I get that roll. I really enjoy the frenetic pace of real time, and if you fumble the ball, and your guys are close, you can get the ball back.

The turn based rules mean you can fumble way back in your side of the line, and the other team has no one near close, but they can get the ball before you. That’s one of the aspects of turn based play that I don’t like. I feel like the turnover rule is too harsh. In real time play, you can see players fumbling the ball back and forth like it was a banana peel soaked in butter, but it doesn’t ruin the game because its hillarious, and if you have more guys nearby, you have a better chance of getting it back.

If I was going to tweak the turn based game, I would make the roll for picking up the ball less rough. You shouldn’t fumble picking up the ball unless you roll a 1 on a die. I also think in an individual match, strength based teams are no competition for the agile ones, but I haven’t played enough yet, so I’ll defer on that conclusion until I get my butt whipped as Wood Elves :slight_smile:

Real time mode feels like Dragon Age: Origins for football. ;). You have to pause and give orders when things get tough, just like in DA. But otherwise things just happen. I think I will try the turn-based game again, playing either Humans or Wood Elves, and see how it goes. I don’t expect it to go that well, cause I always do something risky before I should, but it would be fun to see how I do as the elves.