The Great Roster Cull

[Shteve0]

To be fair, you're the only post I've ever seen sugggest 6338 SF spam. Seems pretty dull to me

But personally, I prefer ST3+block to ST4(/8) blitzers. Its more elegant and both closes off (and opens up in other ways) aspects of development. I also like racial traits dictating player bases, be they through skills, skill access or statlines.

I feel like the rules are the best they've ever been, but that the roster options are still messy, and that certain teams have stuck around for too long because radical overhaul has been either unpopular or difficult. The tie in between WHFB and BB didn't help, and the effects of that are still very much felt, but the relics of protecting long-T0 teams are unhelpful for the game as a whole.

I'd like to see the rosters rationalised to strip out overtly linear strategies, and refocussed teams allowing for more variants in development. PElves seem about right to me level wise, but are limited by the presence of HElf and WElf needing (lazy?) USPs - if the best (design-wise) aspects of the rosterswere combined, based on WE catchers, (AV7) HE thrower, PElf linemen, a mixed blitzer... I believe a more interesting option would emerge at a more appropriate power level.

[burgun824]

If you'd like to know more about the removed complexity, both attributes are defined on page 15: http://bloodbowlhispano.files.wordpress ... 2nd-ed.pdf

That's the first time I've ever seen the 2nd ed rules. Thanks for the read.

[legowarrior]

How about 4/3/4/8 Prehensile Tail for a stats line that hasn't existed before. Slow Agility team.

[plasmoid]

Hi legowarrior,
I've got a house rule team in the same ball park: Ithilmar Elfs.

[Harry Buddha Palm]

I didn't read every post in this thread because most of the ones I did read were completely idiotic, but I will say that when I first started playing this game, I felt very overwhelmed by the number of teams to choose from...and then they added three more! Now there's another one! If I somehow acquired the rights to Blood Bowl, one of the first things I would do is chop the number of teams down. There's just too many and most of them are very similar to each other. I'd prefer a smaller number of teams to choose from, but have each of those teams be really distinct from each other. I mean, how many Elf teams do we really need? How many mutant teams do we need? How many teams of Big Strong Guys and Little Weak Guys? How many joke teams do you need? There's so much overlap and leads to this incessant bickering and arguing over which Elf team is the best and should I choose Chaos or Nurgle or Chaos Pact or my team sucks and the team that beat me is overpowered and I'm new and I can't for the life of me decide what team to play!!!!. Some teams I'd merge together (the Elves, for instance and the Undead teams), some I would just flatout drop (Chaos Pact is too easy to break, I like the idea of Slann but I don't think there's a good way to make it work). Some, I honestly don't know about (Amazon, Norse, Ogre, and Halfling).

So, yeah, if it were up to me there would be Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Undead, Chaos, Orcs, Skaven, Goblins, Lizardmen, and Vampires for sure and maybe Amazon, Norse, Ogre, and Underworld. Of course, most of those teams would be tweaked and balanced and would be amalgamations of older teams. It would be a smaller list of teams to choose from, but each team would be more distinct from the others and have more of an identity. It would also make it easier to balance the game with a smaller selection of teams. It would certainly be less daunting for newer players to get into the game. I doubt it would lead to less bickering and arguing and cries of "The team I play is underpowered and the team that beat me is overpowered", but nothing it going to change that except the end of the World.

[Digger Goreman]

Works for me....

[RogueThirteen]

...when I first started playing this game, I felt very overwhelmed by the number of teams to choose from...and then they added three more! Now there's another one! ... and I'm new and I can't for the life of me decide what team to play!!!!. ...

Fair enough, and welcome to the wonderful world of Blood Bowl. But once you've been playing this game for 10+ years, you might really appreciate the subtle distinctions between Pro Elves and High Elves, you might find the novel challenges of the "joke" teams as something refreshing, and you might enjoy the modding/painting differences between Rotters and a Beast over beastmen and a minotaur.

Perhaps there could be a more explicit "recommended teams for new players" and "more challenging teams" distinction, but even the CRP points out which teams are not intended for the rookie coach, and I think that's enough. And I'm sure any local league has players with enough experience to offer advice and recommendations to new players who might be overwhelmed.

[spubbbba]

Half the fun of BB is the variety of teams to choose from. I know many coaches pick teams based the fluff over the rules and stats and will happily play them for years despite getting continually thrashed.

So it would be a shame to dump half the teams just because a tiny minority of newbies are so stupid that they can’t handle having more than 10 choices in a game.

[SunDevil]

Half the fun of BB is the variety of teams to choose from. I know many coaches pick teams based the fluff over the rules and stats and will happily play them for years despite getting continually thrashed.

So it would be a shame to dump half the teams just because a tiny minority of newbies are so stupid that they can’t handle having more than 10 choices in a game.

Agree 100% though worded a bit harsher than I would have.

While I would like one less Undead team and one less Elf team, I'd replace them ASAP with two new teams to keep 24. I think that's a good number.

[Daht]

Humans are enough for real football, we can just keep them and toss the rest out.

[Darkson]

Half the fun of BB is the variety of teams to choose from. I know many coaches pick teams based the fluff over the rules and stats and will happily play them for years despite getting continually thrashed.

So it would be a shame to dump half the teams just because a tiny minority of newbies are so stupid that they can’t handle having more than 10 choices in a game.

'nuff said...

[Shteve0]

So, the correct viewpoint to have is that we need more rosters, not fewer, and anyone who doesn't agree is "stupid" and a n00b.

Well done lads, glad we cleared that up. What a weight off!

PS: here's a cheery emoticon, just so no-one takes this post *too* seriously...

[Darkson]

Hey, I'm going by your #1 on the OP.

Personally, I'd add MORE rosters, no remove any.

Unsurprisingly, Brets still wouldn't make the cut though.


I would remove the Drawf roster though.







Then add the 4 different Dwarf rosters from the Journal.

[inkpwn]

Half the fun of BB is the variety of teams to choose from. I know many coaches pick teams based the fluff over the rules and stats and will happily play them for years despite getting continually thrashed.

Or if they use a broken team, some people do play dwarfs or undead just because they like the fluff.

[spubbbba]

So, the correct viewpoint to have is that we need more rosters, not fewer, and anyone who doesn't agree is "stupid" and a n00b.

Well done lads, glad we cleared that up. What a weight off!

PS: here's a cheery emoticon, just so no-one takes this post *too* seriously...

Actually I think 24 rosters is enough and 20 would be fine by me. If a team is going to be added it would need to bring something new and have an interesting background. I could see the reasoning for the original plans to bring in elfs and necros to replace high elves and undead respectively but found the new rosters were less interesting than the old. Before adding any new teams, dull rosters like the amazons should be totally revamped norse style.

I think the actual roster for Khorne daemons was ok but didn’t think it suited the fluff, mind you every daemon roster I’ve seen has been poor. I’m also not a fan of the Brettonian team as I feel they are already covered by the humans and none of the lists I’ve seen have added anything to the game.

Being a little daunted by 24 teams when you’re new is natural, but there are plenty of guides telling you the playstyles and even the crp roughly describes how the teams play and lists the less newbie friendly races.

Saying because it’s confusing half the team should be deleted does make you a n00b though.