Starting BloodBowl... with the Dark Elves!

[zerodemon]

It's the same for most teams to be honest. Dark Elves really need the advantage of block on as many players as possible early on. Elves fall down easy.

Don't be fooled by the blitzer name though. A witch elf makes a better blitzer in most cases, since she can handily knock people in to the crowd.

[Gen.Steiner]

I figured that - Frenzy is really handy for smacking people into the crowd - or even just to open space for ball carriers and thrusts into the opponent's backfield.

Which is why I went for two of them! I am going to drop my cheerleader for another point of Fan Factor though, as it'll make my first game's earnings a bit bigger.

[korinth]

I figured that - Frenzy is really handy for smacking people into the crowd - or even just to open space for ball carriers and thrusts into the opponent's backfield.

Which is why I went for two of them! I am going to drop my cheerleader for another point of Fan Factor though, as it'll make my first game's earnings a bit bigger.

Frenzy is very handy, and one of the reasons why I enjoy playing Dark Elves so much. However I must stress that Frenzy is a big reason for why you will need 2-3 re-rolls, and probably can't start with both of them Bitches on the rooster.

[Gen.Steiner]

Thing is, if I do drop a Witch Elf in favour of a Line Elf, and reduce my Fan Factor to 1, I have two concerns:

The first is that my earnings won't be as high as they would be with a FF of 2. The second is that I don't have the models - yet - to represent an extra Line Elf.

For me, I would rather have the extra FF, take the risk of only having 1 re-roll, and use my earnings to do things like get an Apothecary and build up the coaching staff (I know, I know, replacement players yadda yadda ).

[Anaris]

The extra winnings only come from having FAME in LR5 and unless there is a massive difference in FF, it's (IMHO) a waste of money to try make a 2D6 roll go in your favour by making it 2D6+1. Unless investing heavily in FF I suggest you just keep the cash for something else and make your team as strong as it could be from the get go.

One word of warning on Blodging Blitzers. Although it's very easy to make it the 1st skill increase they get by default - don't underestimate the benefit from progressing your players in other directions. Depending how long your league will last, it's worth considering how many improvement rolls your players will earn over the course of the season. I, personally, finished 1st of the most recent club league with an DE team which had only one player with Dodge - a lone Witch Elf who was bought near the end of the league. Giving that I knew the league was only going to be 9 matches long (we played eachother once) I didn't want my 1st set of skills to be Dodge. I also think it's a rather boring way to play the game, but that's a personal choice.

[korinth]

The extra winnings only come from having FAME in LR5 and unless there is a massive difference in FF, it's (IMHO) a waste of money to try make a 2D6 roll go in your favour by making it 2D6+1. Unless investing heavily in FF I suggest you just keep the cash for something else and make your team as strong as it could be from the get go.

One word of warning on Blodging Blitzers. Although it's very easy to make it the 1st skill increase they get by default - don't underestimate the benefit from progressing your players in other directions. Depending how long your league will last, it's worth considering how many improvement rolls your players will earn over the course of the season. I, personally, finished 1st of the most recent club league with an DE team which had only one player with Dodge - a lone Witch Elf who was bought near the end of the league. Giving that I knew the league was only going to be 9 matches long (we played eachother once) I didn't want my 1st set of skills to be Dodge. I also think it's a rather boring way to play the game, but that's a personal choice.

Agreed, I lean towards a Block-heavy DE team. I didn't mention it earlier, but Block helps some in defense as well.

However I much prefer to start with a Witch Elf and try to upgrade her with Block. This gives a lot of directional control. Equally important for me is an early upgrade of a lineman to Dirty Player.

[Isha]

4 blitzers
1 runner
6 linos

2 RR

Standard and possibly best starting roster. FF is pretty useless.

I also wouldnt recomend Darkies as a starting team. They are pretty unforgiving until a TV of 1400ish.

[korinth]

I also wouldnt recomend Darkies as a starting team. They are pretty unforgiving until a TV of 1400ish.

I wouldn't agree entirely with that. I started playing orcs, did 2-3 games and then switched to Dark Elves. It wasn't until I started playing dark elves that I began to get a grasp of the game.

I'd say that some teams are more forgiving, sure, but as a beginner you'll have to watch other players a lot regardless of team, so that you can develop your own set of preferred play styles. It's very much more important that you enjoy playing the team rather than mastering it.

[Gloryseeker]

So I had my first game of bb last night with this team after much research.

4 blitzers, 1 runner, 6 linos, 2 RR

I played against skaven and it wasn't pretty. I lost 3-0. He scored on turn 2 with his gutter runners and then on turn 4 with his gutter runners again. I did have some bad luck, having turnovers until T7 for silly stuff like picking up the ball. I had one player murdered, but overall I found the DE's ok at bashing but I couldn't seem to take advantage of it.

The other teams in the league are Norse, dwarfs, chaos dwarfs, and bashy humans. Any advice from you pros please.

[Gen.Steiner]

Well, I had a bit of a reshuffle, and have ended up with this roster:

1 Cheerleader
1 Re-Roll
3 Fan Factor

Witch Elf, Assassin, 2 Blitzers, 2 Runners, 5 Line-elves

Total: 1 million GC, 100 rating.

I appreciate that lots of re-rolls are the done thing, but I will trust to Khaine and fight up and play the game!

[Inforthepain]

You planning is relly bald hope your first games will be against something squishy, otherwise will first half contains of heavy beating of your positional players. My friends Delfs started kinda the same way and because of the lack of rerolls did my skavens get the upperhand in the bashing first half and crippled his team badly for second.

My only tip is that you leave as few of your players in blocking range of the end of your turn and try go for a more screening gameplan to avoid bashing. You will have a hard time with 1 reroll.

[Lord_Squinty]

The other teams in the league are Norse, dwarfs, chaos dwarfs, and bashy humans. Any advice from you pros please.

Don't try and fight any of those teams - (except maybe the humans depending on how bashy they are) you will come off worse.
Dodge outta the way and play like an Elf.

With the low AV you MIGHT get away with a few tactical hits to take out key players in the Norse team, depending on how your opponent plays.

[Isha]

Well, I had a bit of a reshuffle, and have ended up with this roster:

1 Cheerleader
1 Re-Roll
3 Fan Factor

Witch Elf, Assassin, 2 Blitzers, 2 Runners, 5 Line-elves

Total: 1 million GC, 100 rating.

I appreciate that lots of re-rolls are the done thing, but I will trust to Khaine and fight up and play the game!

Your oly basic skills are one dodge and two blocks. With one RR you are going to suffer Two runners are quite a luxury and the assassin is often useless.
You also have 4 AV7 players out of 11 and no apho.

Prepare some good offering to Khaine as you'll need his help

[ChiTownPicaro]

Tag for later. I am starting a Dark Elves team as well.

[Johnnya10]

I'm looking to get going with a DE team next month. Got a few games lined up and long ago I used to be quite good with my Nightmares. I only ever used the boxed team before but I'm looking at picking out an assassin and I'm curious as to why this player type hasn't been mentioned much here. Is the stab not worthy the extra cost?

[bildo]

my starting team is

witch elf
2 blitzers
runner
assassin
6 lineman
2 rerolls

the assassin fails to do anything most times, but when he does its usualy good, his stab is the first thing i do in a turn as its never a turn end. hes slow, low armoured and falls down if someone even sneezes in his direction, but hes fun, and mines done loads of stuff, like take out an ogre. i will always start with that team lay out because its so much fun. get the assasin jump up as the first skill and your sorted