Drafting Your Dream Team

[Melifaxis]

Pretend for a moment you're participating in a NAF draft format tournament where one of every player type (all 119 of them) is available to be drafted only once. It's you and 8 other coaches.

Who are you targeting in the draft and why? We'll use the 1.15M NAF budget, so assuming you want 2 re-rolls you've got an average of around 84k per player to spend across 12 rounds.

[JaM]

I'd depend if they can get skills later on, or have to buy them.

I can see a use for a wardancer/pro elf blitzer and the like, but (for instance) I'd really like to have a werewolf with a skill, ghouls the same, mummys, witch elfs, norse werewolves, etc.

...

No starplayers?

[rolo]

Snake style draft or auction style? Either could be awesome.

I think game-breaking players with good value would go first. Wardancer is probably the first pick, then Gutter Runner, various Elf catchers, Slann catcher in some order. Those are all unique players with awesome stats.
I almost had Vampire up there, but since you then need to draft a Thrall, are screwed if someone else notices and picks them up, Vampires are likely a low priority pick despite their game-breaking and unique abilities.

I think next, there will be a run on smashers - Blitzers and Blockers. Most teams only need one ball carrier and maybe one or two alternatives, so at this point I'd want to load up on as much Strength, Block, and Strength Skill access as I can get. Amazon Blitzer, Saurus, Black Orc, Orc Blitzer are great value. There are two Wights. Underworld Skaven Blitzer > Skaven Blitzer. Flesh Golem is also great but expensive. Khorne Heralds are a great wild card. I also want durability, so if I already have a couple Blitzers, I'd look for Mummy, Troll, Ogre (first from the Ogre team, then the Human version), Halfling Treeman, Wood Elf Treeman. Saurus is a great value here.

I imagine all of the super-high impact players will be gone by round 4 or 5. After that I'd look for high-upside players with drawbacks here - Khemri Blitzers are objectively worse than Wights (Same price, same stats except -1 AG). I'd take a Slann blitzer here if still available - they're super expensive and don't have Block, but huge potential. Then I'd look for receivers and backup ball carriers - all the good ones will be gone by now, but Human catcher, Skaven Thrower, maybe Pro or Wood elf thrower might still be available. Amazon catcher is terrible but should be around still.

After round 8 or 9 or so, there won't be much left in the way of great or even good players, and there might not be a lot of cash left over anyway. Cheap and Durable is what I'd look for - zombies, Orc linemen, Human linemen (I assume Marauders will be all one by now). I'd even grab a Goblin, Halfling, and especially Snotling. Then get as many rerolls as I can afford and go to town!

Disclaimer: this is all based on theory and experience in Fantasy Football (the NFL kind) drafts.

I'd love to see this in action. I'd REALLY love to see an auction-style Blood Bowl draft! that'll really force people to make some tough decisions and could lead to some very interesting results.

[Mystic Force]

The guys that do the 3 Die Block podcast have organized draft events using the take turns to pick options version (the Wardancer always goes first) so if you want to hear about how the draft goes and the subsequent tournament then look through their back catalogue.

Note they normally do it in June as part of their 3 Die Brawl weekend and have run at the big con in Indianapolis, but they did not do it last year because of World Cup prep tournaments instead if you are looking for them. I myself have never participated in one. I think that the auction style would be amazing. The order of items up for bid would be important (random or pre-determined?) And would you do normal bidding (start low until no more bids), Dutch (dropping price till someone bites) or sealed bid (This one could really screw you over so probably would not work)

Anyway fascinating topic with some data points out there. You can select Draft as an option when submitting a tournament to the NAF so there should be more people out there that have run the format.

[rolo]

I'd do auction style like in Fantasy football. One randomly selected coach chooses a player and can place a bid (in Fantasy Football, bids are in units of $1, in Blood bowl I imagine you'd use bid in units of 5 or 10 KGP). Then each player "in a circle" (like going clockwise around a table or whatever) has an opportunity to bid higher or pass. Whoever bids highest pays their bid and gets the player, and nominates the next player.

In Fantasy Football auction drafts, it pays to bid strategically to force your competitors to overpay. For example, if there's only one good Quarterback left and you see that one of your opponents doesn't have one, you nominate that QB and bid high, knowing that your opponent has to top your bid or do without. In Blood Bowl auctions, I imagine this might happen when there's only a few blitzers left, or AG4 ball carriers, or whatever.
Of course, that coach can screw you back by refusing to bid and going with the next best thing, forcing you to eat your own bid. It's as hilarious as you think.

I would love to see this happen.

[rolo]

And to make the auction even more aggressive and competitive - put everything up for auction. Like for 8 coaches (probably the most you could support with 119 players), add "not quite enough" rerolls - like 16 rerolls to the pot, and 4 apothecaries. Watch people sweat when the last reroll goes up for auction.

[Melifaxis]

Vampires can bite any 0-16 player in this tournament so he's high on my list, and it's a snake draft. Everyone is getting a skills pack later with four normal and two doubles skills (one skill max per drafted player). No star players. I'll have to go back and listen to some 3 die block drafts thanks for that tip. A lot of what I am seeing here so far is in line with what I was thinking. I was hoping to make year two an auction style draft if the folks that attend this year are interested.

[rolo]

Ok that vampire rule makes a lot of sense. It also pushes Vampires WAY up, maybe even the second pick after Wardancer.

How are you going to handle games with 22 mismatched models on the board?

[lunchmoney]

How are you going to handle games with 22 mismatched models on the board?

Facing will matter. Miniatures facing you are in my team. Plus one should also write down what is on one's team and keep that list handy

[sann0638]

Loom bands

[Skitters]

played a game of all star player bloodbowl in November. The chap who organised it had 16 red and 16 blue sleeves that the bases slotted into.

[Melifaxis]

Players have 2.5 months to get their teams painted after the draft - so hopefully most units will have a cohesive look. I'll also have loom bands on hand and advise them if they are using existing miniatures from other teams they have already painted that they should consider getting some uniform color base rings. I'm sure it will be a minor obstacle on the day of the event, but not too bad. Maybe I'll look into buying a bunch of color bases that 32mm bases can pop into. I found these on etsy after a quick search. EDit: got a bunch of em

[Christy42]

I have done it. It is a fun if exhausting day to play with the teams.

If there are no extra skills Amazon blitzers are great. Dwarf blocker and chaos dwarf blocker are the only tackle.

Depending on how you like the team the wrestle bretonnians are nice as well. Then you get a run on block for some reliable blitzing.

We had players repeated on different roster could be taken once for each roster (i.e. Kroxigor is on Lizardman and Slann rosters so two of them could be taken).

Obviously wardancer and gutter runner went first. Vampire went early but we ruled anything could be a thrall. Teams ended up with 3 big guys. Curious if that is optimal. They largely cancelled each other out but I found them devastating if one got loose. You have so many great players to take advantage of any gap they open up and are great road blocks when the opponent tries to scramble back