Call
that a long post,
this is a long post!
Is there a list of prices for all the different players/positions for all the different teams?
The
Teams of Legend document will probably be enough for you as a starting player, and it's
free! Beyond that, the additional rules releases (two Death Zone supplements and four Spike Journal supplements, so far) detail any teams or new positionals that aren't on the
Teams of Legend sheet (Goblins have a Doom Diver, for example).
Are the star player miniatures available?
Some are, most aren't. You can get some from Games Workshop, some from Forge World and some from 3rd party companies (Willy Miniatures, Black Scorpion etc.), some you can kitbash and convert up yourself!
If you buy star players whose cards didn't come with the core set do their cards come with them (eg dwarves, Skaven etc)?
They don't come with the miniatures. I'm pretty sure they
do come in team card packs that come out with each team release. If you have the supplements with their rules, you don't really need the cards (as the stats and skills are in the books).
When building a team am I right that it is typically £1,000,000 gold pieces to build a squad of 11 to 16 players?
Depends what rules you are playing. Example: the league I play in (the mighty mighty
SAWBBL) starts with 1.1m to create a team. Some tournaments might give you a big budget, allowing you to include star players and all the fun positionals. It varies.
As well as the players you can add re-rolls and skills to players can't you?
Approaching this one from a basic Blood Bowl out of the box angle, you can buy re-rolls, you can't buy skills (but you can earn them, via Star Player Points [SPPs], as detailed in Death Zone 1... I think!).
What do the skills and re-rolls cost in gold pieces each? Again is there a list of these with costs to work from?
See question 1. Though it's worth adding re-rolls usually cost double to buy if you're playing in a league and want to add them throughout the season.
If we wanted to expand and play about with an Orc team or Human team and needed some more blitzers or catchers than came with the core box for example is it a case of buying spare players as they come up on Ebay or are there expansion packs?
Your options are as follows;
- eBay (or bitz sites)
- Buy another team box just to get the 'missing' positionals
- Team booster packs from Forge World (there's usually a bit of a wait time for this - we still haven't got the Human ones and that team was released in 2016!). Also, they don't always have the minis you'd want. The
recent Orc team booster would still leave you one Blitzer short of a full team, but that's another Dickens' tale...
3rd party miniatures.
- Other miniatures from Games Workshop's non-Blood Bowl ranges (I use Skaven Deathrunners from the Silver Tower game as my 'missing' Skaven Gutter Runners from the Blood Bowl team box set because they're similar sculpts, for example).
- Borrowing from other players.
- Converting your own (that's
my preference, but not necessarily accessible if you're brand new to the hobby).
Beyond that, here's some reading material to get you started:
The Art Of Blocking (
https://www.thenaf.net/wp-content/uploa ... ocking.pdf)
FUMBBL’s Taouch guide (
https://fumbbl.com/help:The+Taoch!+of+B ... or+Newbies)
The 1000 Losses Playbook (
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ednwzorq89gc ... %20Ed1.pdf).
It's a long read (I'm still only halfway through it myself!), but there's loads of good stuff in there, if you can commit the time to it.
More team-specific, the BBtactics (
https://bbtactics.com/) site is a great resource. It gives suggested team builds and tactics and, for me, the first thing I do when a player skills-up is have a look on there for the recommended progression route. I might not always follow it, but it's a great guide to get you thinking.
If you have considered playing online, the 145 Club (
https://fumbbl.com/p/group&group=2922&op=view) on FUMBBL (
https://fumbbl.com/) (a Java-based Blood Bowl client) is quite a welcoming league for coaches looking to get better. The Ranked option on there can lead to some pretty bad maulings if you're not sure what you're doing, but the 145 is built for new coaches and experienced coaches get handicapped (only being allowed to use linemen, having to take stunty teams etc.) so it draws experienced players who want to help newer or less experienced coaches. You can also spectate games on FUMBBL, which lets you watch games and pick up ideas on what works.
You've obviously found TFF, it's a really active Blood Bowl forum, with a good collection of coaches always willing to offer advice which is (mostly!) useful. I asked for basic pointers on a thread here (
http://talkfantasyfootball.org/viewtopi ... 27&t=44338) and got some good feedback. The Facebook group (
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bloodbowlcommunity/) is less useful; there's a lot of bad advice on there from people who don't play the game very often/well.
Finally, here’s an article written on the NAF (the worldwide network for Blood Bowl coaches and tournaments, you'll want to join - it's only a fiver!) website about being new to tournaments
https://www.thenaf.net/2017/07/new-to-tournaments/. It’s written by one of the most charming, handsome, witty and modest Blood Bowl players I’ve ever met, he’s a real legend.
Oh, one more thing, as you're learning to play with your kids (a great way to learn!), might be worth reading these from Sann0638 and myself about different ways to learn the game.
http://www.sann0638.co.uk/teaching-the-kids-blood-bowl/
https://www.thenaf.net/2018/06/learning-to-love-sevens/
Hit me up if you have any more questions, always happy to help.
