Jimjimany has written an in-depth report of a tournament warmup match, giving an insight into the tactical decisions made by one of the world’s best Blood Bowl players. Read on!
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Ladies and gentlemen; I present to you a match report.
The following is an account of a tournament style game between myself and Andrew Berry, whom many of you will know as the master pensmith the Sizzler. Alas, I do not possess the literary mastery and wit of Andy so I shall not attempt to create an account of perfect side partings, images blatantly taken from Google and tales of debauchery in Liverpool. No, this match report will contain something much different… An actual report of an actual Blood Bowl match.
DISCLAIMER! If you are expecting a Sizzler Style report full of joke and wordplay then I must dissapoint you. All you will find here is text and photographs of little metal men.
Firstly, a tournament game is played much differently to a league game of Blood Bowl. Tournaments present various and exciting rules packs to players to build there teams from, each different from most other tournaments. We were using the Monkeybowl rules pack. I’m a great fan of this rules pack, as it rewards and encourages the use of lower tiered teams and lesser used skills. Andy was attending monkeybowl so that’s why we chose it. Unfortunately I had somewhere far less exciting to be that weekend.
If you have never played a game of tournament bloodbowl or it isn’t your thing please read on anyway, most (not all though!) of these tactics and tips can be easily transfered over to league play.
After a brief refresher of what exactly the rules for monkeybowl were I started to design my team. I chose wood elves, because I like to win 
. I had 1,150,000gc to buy my players with and in the end i settled on 2 wardancers, 1 treeman, 4 catchers, 4 linemen and 3 re-rolls. The other option i strongly considered was swapping a catcher for a thrower and a re-roll for an apothecary and then taking leader on the thrower as one of my skills. Both options are strong, but there were other things I wanted to spend my skill points on so the thrower had to leave. Its a solid roster I have used many times. It lacks strength with the four catchers, but the positioning flexibility it gives you is great.
For my skills I chose +MV on the treeman, Strip ball and tackle on the wardancers, Wrestle on a Lineman and pass block on a catcher (please see the rules pack if you are interesting in why this amazingly suboptimal skill choice is here). I chose my skills as if I was going to attend the event, and didn’t tailor them to Andys race choice of orcs, hence tackle. Other than the leader thrower option i mentioned above, I also considered a frenzy wardancer and a grab treeman, but settled on these choices. The Strip ball wardancer and the +MV treeman were the only definite choices, strip ball is situational and rarely used but is game changing when it is. The +MV treeman is a beast, not having to roll to stand up is fantastic, he can tie up multiple players and even if knocked down can do it again next turn.
Andy took a Troll, 4 Black Orcs (one with guard, one with block), 4 Blitzer (one with guard), 2 Linemen, a Thrower with kick of return, 3 Re-rolls and an apothecary. After applying useful but overpriced skill rings to our models we were ready to roll!
The weather roll was nice, Andy got +2 fame and I won the kick off. I elected to kick, as I like to defend with 11 players, which I probably wouldn’t have that in the second half.
Green = Guard
Orange = Wrestle
Red = Strip Ball Wardancer
Black = Pass Block
Blue = Block
I set up shielding my valuable players (the wardancers) behind my non valuable players (everyone else) whilst still spreading them out to be able to respond to most areas of the pitch.
I had a plan in my head for how I wanted to tackle the orcs offensive drive. Andy had all the tools he needed to protect his ball carrier from the wardancers (sure hands and guard) so the plan was to try and isolate the guarding players from the rest of his cage, and/or put pressure on the ball carrier without having to block/blitz him to try and get him to roll some dodges, or hand off to another player who doesn’t have sure hands so I can use strip ball on him.
The kick off result was perfect defense, which was lovely. I moved the treeman to tie up the two black orcs and the rest of the line of scrimmage next to him so that if they were blocked, the blocking player would have to follow up next to the treeman. I saw no benefit to moving forwards with anyone else so just shuffled them around.
Andy did some blocking and a blitz, stunning a catcher and then failed to pick up the ball.
With the ball so deep even the movement 8 players couldn’t get close I decided not to put any pressure on and again just shuffled around. I blitzed a blitzer with my wrestler and stunned him. I chose the wrestler to blitz with rather than a wardancer because if I roll double both downs or both down skull one of more of my fragile elves will end up stood next to him. I also like using catchers to provide the assists with and position them so that if I roll a POW they can mark the prone player and move away easily next turn, but if I roll a push I can push them to a square that’s not next to them so they don’t get blocked. I then dodged away with the stood up linelf on the line of scrimmage and he rolled a 1. This being the first turn I was unwilling to re-roll if and he was knocked out. I dodged with the stood up player and not the prone player just incase I rolled a 1, because the prone player cannot be blocked next turn whilst the stood up player can. As you can probably guess, I don’t like to leave wood elves next to opposing players unless I feel its absolutely necessary.
Andy successfully picked up the ball this time and moved forwards after blitzing the catcher in his half. I believe Andy made a couple of mistakes here. Firstly, he left a big gap to the right of the treeman that all the elves could run through. Secondly he protected the back of his cage with two blitzer who didn’t need to be there, I couldn’t get round the back with a strength 3 player to blitz his ball carrier so those players would have been better served plugging that gap.
I had a long think about how I wanted to play this turn. I saw a good opportunity to put pressure on Andy’s cage (which is what I did in the end) but I was worried that by doing this as early as turn 2 I was potentially facing 6 turn of being blocked by the orcs and losing players. What tipped the decision for me was the gap between his caging players and the rest of his team, as I was able to screen them off from the action or tie them up with the treeman.
I moved up a couple of assists, and using the wrestle lineman blitzed the corner of the cage and marked the ball carrier twice. Marking him twice means that Andy couldn’t blitz off them both so would be forced into dodging or handing off.
If you are going to do something like this you have to do it properly, and I didn’t. When you are putting pressure on a cage its best to mark as many players who can affect the next turn as possible, and I could have tagged the guarding black orc with a catcher. There wasn’t any way of me marking the blitzer at the back of the cage so he was always going be left free.
As you can see that guarding black orc is in a pretty important place, if he had been marked if would have made Andys turn allot trickier. As it happens he was able to dodge away with his thrower and form a cage.
I continued to apply pressure by marking players involved in the cage. Throughout the game whenever I needed to mark a blitzer I used a lineman, and to mark black orcs I used catchers. The blitzers can’t two dice block the linemen without an assist and the catchers are getting two dice blocked by both anyway, but the black orcs don’t have block. If your opponent wants to bring players over to make these blocks more favorable then that’s good for you I think, they could have been doing something else that turn.
Andy was able to easily move his cage to the side and avoid the danger, but now the two guarding players are no longer with the cage. Also, it is turn 4 and the orcs hadn’t reached the half way line yet.
Again I continued to apply pressure, hoping to isolate another orc or two from the cage. Unfortunately due to Andys positioning of the troll I was unable to get around every side of his cage leaving him an obvious direction to go in. Its also worth noting that this is my fourth turn, and I have yet to take an action with the treeman. This is because I feel he is in a good position, and him taking root or falling over in this situation would ruin that.
Andy moved forwards. A few things of note from this photograph are that there is an open corner of Andy’s cage, but because all of my strength 3 players are on the other side of it, or prone next the troll it isn’t as bad as it seems. Also, the cage is now even further away from the orcs with guard, they are effectively out of this drive. This turn Andy also decided not to use his troll, he was in the position he needed him to be in, he only had something to lose by him failing his really stupid test.
However, the was a way to quite easily block the ball carrier with two dice. Firstly, I put a player just above my two prone linemen. The idea being that the wardancer would block the blitzer, pushing the lower of the two linemen into Andys cage. Unfortunately the wardancer rolled double skulls and I had to re-roll it, resulting in a casualty to the blitzer. Andy sensibly used his apothecary to move him to the reserves box. I then needed to do a two things, negate the assist of the blitzer below the troll for when my lineman blitzed the ball carrier and provide an assist for that blitz in the square below and right of the thrower. The only way of negating the blitzers assist was to block the lineman with the treeman and follow up, so I moved the tackle wardancer over to make this block three dice. I then foolishly moved the catcher below the treeman next to Andys thrower before making the treeman block, meaning I then needed to negate the block black orcs assist next to the treeman which was a waste of that player this turn, an example of how the order of doing this is often so important in blood bowl.
Anyway, the treeman took root so couldn’t follow up to negate that assist, and since I’d wasted my only other available players action this turn meant that the blitz on the thrower was only 1 dice. I rolled an both down and we both fell over and my catcher caught the bouncing ball.
Andy then blitzed the catcher, knocking him down and picking the ball up with the same blitzer. Fortunately the ball bounced backwards twice which meant Andy couldn’t move as far forwards. Once again, all of my strength 3 players found themselves screened off from the action my some orcs.
I marked Andys players as best I could and moved the strip ball wardancer back ready for next turn. I then blocked the black orc above the treeman with the treeman hoping that if I rolled a POW it would free up the tackle wardancer to dodge on 2+ and blitz somebody. I didn’t roll a POW so he had to 3+ then 2+ dodge to blitz, and rolled double both down when blitzing the lowermost blitzer.
Andy then moved his blitzer into scoring range but was unable to bring supporting players to support him.
Sorry I lost to photo of my turn 7. I blitzed the ball carrier with the strip ball wardancer, which meant Andy had no players in scoring range and that I could focus on scoring without having to worry about him scoring. I then threw two players into scoring range but the third one rolled a double 1 and CASed himself. Double ones always seem unfortunate and in isolation they are, but when you attempt lots of 2+ dodges it becomes likely you fail one. If I had failed one of the earlier ones in this drive it could have seriously affected my defense, but fortunately for me I didn’t and I only failed this less important one. Its still annoying he was casual tied though 
Andy then blitzed one of my receivers are double marked the other. I decided to attempt to push my wrestling lineman 1 square forwards so he would be in scoring range, but I rolled a both down. Instead of using my re-roll I elected to attempt a short pass to the wardancer but he failed the 4+ catch. The half ended 0-0.
My knocked out player came back and we then set up for the second half. Andy set up to leave no easy route for me to break through and put receivers into his half. I set up incase Andy rolled blitz, its the only kick of result I really care about, it can ruin your drive if you don’t plan for it. Yes it’s fortunate for your opponent to roll it but if there was something you could have done to minimize its affect then stop complaining!
I also put my wrestler as far forward as possible incase I rolled quick snap and I could move forwards and block the blitzer and the blitz the other to create a gap through to Andys half. I also put as few elves on the line of scrimmage as possible incase of perfect defense. As it happens we rolled high kick so all of that might seem irrelevant, but I didn’t lose anything by planning for those results, I only had something to gain my setting expecting them.
My plan for the drive was to score as close to turn 8 as possible, preferably exactly on turn 8. I’d move around in my own half until an opportunity to move forwards quickly but safely came along. Unlike the first half I wouldn’t be marking orcs very often, I like to play aggressive defense, but defensive offense.
I blocked the players I could towards the treeman, again not moving the treeman since I was happy with the position he was in. I blitzed a blitzer and stunned him and the just shuffled around. A movement 8 player can score from 4 squared behind the line of scrimmage in 2 turns, there is no need to move forwards on turn one when its safer in your half!
Andy then pressed up against my line of wood elves, blitzing the most forward catcher and knocking him out.
I noticed that if the treeman blocked the black orc and if i blitzed the lineorc next to him, then if they both were knocked down I would be able to move through, or if just one of them was knocked down I could dodge my players through on a 2+. If neither of them fell over I could just move backwards a bit and wait for another opportunity.
However there was quite a big risk in blocking with the treeman. As it was only a 2 dice block, and he has loner there was a 1/9 chance of the action causing a turnover. I decided that if I did the block first and it failed, all of my other players would be stood up and near my block/dodge ball carrier so even if it did fail my ball carrier would be reasonably protected by his inherent skills and any damage would be limited by the player around him.
Fortunately for me I managed to knock the Black Orc down and dodge a bunch of elves through. This is an example of why wood elves are one of the top teams in the game, they have the combination of high movement and agility and starting skills to turn a very small mistake into a game changing one.
Andy moved his orcs back to recover, applying pressure to the cage and moving his players back. Often players freak out when wood elves move past them so quickly, some players then do silly things like difficult dodges or just trying to block as many as possible, or wasting players fouling away from the action. Its important to carry on playing sensibly, applying pressure the ball carrier and trying to recover your position. If you respond to making a small mistake with making a bigger one it wont help.
I moved slightly further down field. When attempting to stall teams it can be tempting to move strait to the endzone as fast as possible, but with low strength, high agility teams I find it best to move as slowly towards it as possible (whilst still protecting your ball carrier). This leaves you more room to move into in later turns. Also, when stalling don’t just plan out this turn and how your going to protect your ball carrier, also have in mind where you could move to next turn. Screen of areas of the pitch for you to move into.
Andy continued to apply pressure, not just on the ball carrier but to the right side of my cage, trying to reduce my options for next turn. He made several go for its to ensure he could do this, leaving them until last incase they failed.
I then moved into the corner and I think this was a mistake. I could blitzed the blitzer by the endzone, and if he had fallen over moved around the black orc towards the middle of the pitch but next to the endzone. I think had I done this I could have stalled until turn 8, as I would have given myself lots of room to move into in subsequent turns but also moved far away from Andys players by the sideline.
Andy then mobbed my players in the corner. And moved his other players to make any dodges the remaining elves could make difficult. I really had no option but to score on my next turn, I had backed myself into a corner. I didn’t even try to do anything else, just scored. Some people may have been tempted to try a few blocks, but I didn’t feel the risk was worth it. 1-0 to the wood elves.
The knocked out catcher did not come back. Andy had four turns to score, which is a difficulty prospect for orcs since a large portion of the team is very slow. My plan for this drive was to hold the middle of the field with the treeman and defend the sides with the elves. I knew Andy would have to quickly commit to one flank or the other, so I could then move all of my elves to defend that side, whilst using the treeman to prevent him coming back the other way.
Andy then rolled up a pitch invasion, and if you have been paying attention you will know he had +2 fame. After investigation the legitimacy of the dice he used we rolled for the damage. Both wardancers bit it, but fortunately the treeman remained upright. I also managed to stun three orcs on the same side of the pitch.
Andy collected the ball and moved up, pushing the troll down my right side and a couple of orcs the other way. I think he probably should have picked one side and moved them all that way.
In light of both wardancers and 3 others being stunned I decided to just try to buy some time this turn. I blitzed the black orc of the treeman with the wrestler and moved the treeman next to all of Andys prone players.
Andy pushed up my right side. I felt he didn’t move fast enough, he still had all 3 re-rolls remaining so could have made a few go for its to move fast but didn’t. I think he could have also brought the block black orc into my half to mark some more of my players and trap them inbetween his players.
The treeman stood up, without having to roll a 4+ to do so because of his movement 3. I made a decision making mistake this turn. At the start of the turn I decided to chain push my standing lineman next to the troll, and then bring in some assists to block him. That was a silly thing to do, since it would mean moving so many players into a small place just to block one player. I only realized this was a bad idea after blitzing and pushing the lineman next to the troll. If I had thought a bit longer about my whole turn I could have saved the blitz action for something more useful. As a result I was only able to bring two of my players into the sideline Andy was advancing down.
Andy then blitzed the lineman, knocking him out and moved his cage through the big whole I had left. He went for it with the thrower once, but I think he should have done it a second time. He was 8 squares away from the endzone so could not score next turn, meaning he would have to pass or hand off. If he was 1 square further forward he could still have passed or handed off, but I would also have had to defend the option of him going for it twice into the endzone. However Andy did make some go for its with his black orcs to trap my tackle wardancer which meant he would have to dodge on 3+ next turn, which is a big different from 2+. I made the dodges I needed next turn, but it was the right thing for those players to do since they had nothing else helpful to do.
Since Andy only had two players able to score next turn I blitzed one of them (the blitzer) and marked the other (the lineorc). In hindsight I did this the wrong way around, I should have blitzed the lineorc as he was easier to knock down since he does not have block. I also made another small mistake with the positioning of the strip ball wardancer. Where he is currently Andy could put a player behind him and then blitz the catcher next to him, and if he rolled a POW would remove both markers from the lineorc. Andy didn’t roll a POW, but if I had moved him one square to the right it wouldn’t have even been possible. Another example of a small mistake that could cost you a result.
So the game finished 1-0.
This was a really enjoyable game against Andy, he is always a fun chap to play taking his good and poor fortune in the way you’d expect a man of his stature to. Looking back on the game I’d give the treeman the MVP, he didn’t take many actions but tied up players all game and made the key block on turn 2 of the second half to move my team through into Andy’s half. I love the treeman on the wood elf team, he adds an element of strength to the team that they couldn’t get from anywhere else, orcs are one of the perfect teams for him to be included against and with +MV it turns him from a handy roadblock to an immovable object.
I felt pretty fortunate to win in the end, Andy’s drive in the first half was put under immediate pressure due to the perfect defence result and I got away pretty lightly with the style of defence I chose to play. Andy rolled lots of block dice against the elves and they survived very well. Had a few of them been removed from the pitch things could have gone very differently for the rest of the game if I was significant numbers down. I also think Andy should have been able to score after the pitch invasion but was perhaps a little too cautious with his movement forwards, which is understandable against wood elves.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, it was actually quite fun to write. Although I was slowing down a bit towards the end! If you have any questions or would like to see more of this sort of stuff please let me know.
This article first appeared in the NAF Newsletter in May 2013.