Orc Linemen are tough but unskilled, making them an easy target for a quick block. Ok, so let’s think about our example defense and decide where the focus of our blocking is going to be. For slower teams, you’ll want to keep players more centrally located, as it may be harder to put supporting players where you need them. Generally speaking, the faster your team is, the more wackadoo you can get with your offensive formation. Most players will give you the minimum number of players to hit, which is 3, and you get 1 Blitz, so you’re generally looking at 4 players to block on your first turn.Īnother thing to keep in mind here is that you don’t need to set up your offense symmetrically! Humans love bilateral symmetry, but in Blood Bowl, it’s often best to overload a side to help dictate where the game is going to be played. It’s important to think about how many opposing players you’ll get to block on your first turn, too. The key here is to create mismatches and exploit any seams in the defense. There is no specific “right” way to set up on offense. Setting Up on Offenseĭefenders set up first, and it’s up to the receiving team to answer. Orcs on defense play best when they’re shading towards the middle of the pitch, so setting up an opponent’s run up the middle plays directly into the Orc team’s strongest defensive position. You may think that an obvious flaw like that is a bad thing, but dear reader, it’s not! One of the Orc team’s biggest weaknesses is their relative slowness, and by exhibiting a weak point in the middle of the pitch it will draw their opponent right down the middle, where there are plenty of S4 Big Uns ready to pummel the opposing team. In this example, the linemen are the weakest and least skilled players on the Orc team, making them the obvious point of attack. Lineman are perfect for absorbing blocks, as they’re the least useful players on the team.įor the third defensive concept, let’s start with a question: have you spotted the weak points in this setup, yet? It’s not on the wide zones, they’re covered by Blitzers who are stacked up to prevent an easy end-around. The whole field is covered, fulfilling our first defensive concept, and there are only 3 players on the line: A Big Un and 2 lineman. In this example, our Orc team has 1 Thrower, 4 Blitzers, 4 Big Un Blockers, and 2 Lineman (notice the Team Comp?). It’s set up to cover the whole pitch and specifically funnel the opponent towards the middle of the pitch so that the Orcs’ slower players can remain relevant throughout the drive. What kind of website would we be if we didn’t have custom-built diagrams to show what we’re talking about? The following example is using an Orc team. Got a slow team? Try to funnel the opponent towards the middle of the pitch where more of your team can stay relevant. Got a fast team? Aggressively load speedy players in the wide zones to take advantage of a potential Blitz! Result on the Kickoff Events table. Set Yourself Up For Success: Set up your team so that you can take advantage of its Strengths.You have to put 3 players on the line, and they get 1 Blitz, but you do not want to give them more than 4 Blocks on their first turn. Block Mitigation: Remember that the receiving team gets to go first, so you don’t want to give them more than the minimum number of blocks right off the bat.

Multiple overlapping tackle zones is the best way to do this. Coverage: You want to cover the field so your opponent cannot easily run right through your defense.

There are a three important concepts to focus on when setting up a defense: Again, each team is different, and so their formations will end up looking different, but there are some easy-to-recognize general takeaways.

Setting up your team to score or defend can be daunting, but there are a few takeaways that apply to every team. Let’s continue with some basic ideas regarding kick-off formations! Kick-off FormationsĪ Kickoff starts every drive. Passing, blocking, scoring, stalling and fouling are all part of your toolkits, but how, when, and where you should do these things can be the difference between great success and spectacular failure. Welcome, Sports Fans and burgeoning coaches, to the Goonhammer Blood Bowl Combine! For those of you who are new to Blood Bowl, or maybe those returning after a long hiatus, we’ve assembled a playbook here that will hopefully get you onto the field and winning, drawing, or at least losing in style! Although Blood Bowl is technically about literal fantasy football, the game itself is fairly strategic and is best thought of as a style of skirmish game with a sports theme.

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