I'm just going to put this out here right away so there's no misunderstandings. I love this game but it has a pretty nasty early learning curve. Your first few games it's probably going to feel like nothing is going right and it can be quite frustrating. I'm going to try and give you some information on the basics of play, enough to get you playing and competitive. Once you get over the initial hurdle, the advanced stuff is much easier to pick up as you go. I apologize, but this is going to be somewhat long winded. I'll explain some basics about stats and actions in this first post, then I'll cover a few basic strategies in the next one. I'm also going to suggest that new players go through the tutorial inside the game so you can pick up the controls and you know how to do the different actions I'm talking about.
Most of the information in this post can be found in the Living Rulebook, the freely available rulebook for the Blood Bowl tabletop game. You can download a copy of it
here if you would like to look it over for yourself. The computer game is very faithful to the tabletop rules except for the Chaos Dwarf teams not being included.
The first and most important thing to realize about Blood Bowl is that almost every action you can take is controlled by the roll of six sided dice. No matter how many skills you have on your players, how well you plan out your moves, or how weak your opponent seems to be, there is always the chance of failure. Your job is to minimize the chance of failure, but also to be prepared for when, not if, things go wrong.
There are a few basic rules you need to know about before we can even get to actions you take during a game. One of the most important is the concept of "tackle zones". For the most part, a player who is standing creates tackle zones in all eight of the spaces immediately adjacent to them. There are occasional exceptions but those are more advanced rules, you generally won't see them happen in early play. Tackle Zones have a very large influence on many actions, so understanding where they are is essential.
Turnovers mean something slightly different in Blood Bowl than in American Football. A Turnover happens when the team whose turn it is fails a skill roll. It instantly ends that player's turn and the other team gets to take their turn. Needless to say, you want to avoid these at virtually all costs.
All players have four stats. MA is Movement Allowance. This number is the number of squares the player can move in a turn with no penalty. It is possible to Go For It and try to move up to two more spaces, but each additional square requires a roll. If the roll is a 1, the player falls in the square they were moving to and there is a Turnover. ST is Strength. This is mostly used to determine the results of a block, though in certain cases it can also be used for a skill roll. AG is Agility. This is usually the stat used for skill rolls, which are explained later. Finally, AV is Armor Value, which is a measure of how hard your player is to hurt when they get knocked down. When a player is knocked down, you roll two dice. If the result is higher than the AV, the player is injured. Since it's 2d6, each point is a significant upgrade in survivability.
The only actions which do not require dice rolls are moving players who are not next to opposing players, and standing up players who have been knocked down. Since these are the only moves which have no risk, in most cases you should do them first. No die roll is required to move up next to an opponent, but if you are standing in an opponent's tackle zone and try to move away you will need to make a roll to avoid getting knocked down. All other actions have different amounts of risk depending on the skills and statistics of your players.
One of the most common actions for many teams is the Block, where you attempt to knock your opponents down and out of the play. However, this is also one of the most complicated actions you can take. Several players on each team could be involved in a single Block action. To determine the result, a number of block dice(1-3 depending on circumstances) are rolled and one of them is chosen as the result of the block. The possible results are as follows:
Blue Arrow(2 faces) - Push. The defending player is pushed back a space but is not knocked down. In most cases the attacking player chooses which of the three squares behind the defender they are moved to. There are skills which can affect this but they're a bit more advanced than what I'm covering here.
Yellow Starburst - Defender Down. The defending player is pushed backward as with the push die, but they are knocked down in the square they end up in. An armor roll is made to see if the player is injured, which will be explained later.
Yellow Starburst with ! in the middle - Defender Stumbles. This face has two possible effects. If the defending player has the Dodge skill, it functions like Push. If the defending player does not have Dodge, it functions as a Defender Down result.
Red Skull - Attacker Down. The attacking player is knocked down in the square they are currently standing in. This causes a Turnover and an armor roll.
Red Skull and Yellow Starburst - Both Down. This basically combines Attacker and Defender Down results, unless one or both players has the Block skill. If they don't have Block, both the attacking and defending player are knocked down in the square they are currently in. If either of them has Block, they are not knocked down and do not move. This result causes a Turnover if the attacking player does not have Block. If they do have Block, however, their turn can continue.
We'll start with the simplest possible Block, two players starting next to each other with no other players nearby. In this case, the number of dice rolled and the player who picks the result are determined by the Strength stat of the players. If the two players have equal strength, one block die is rolled and whatever comes up happens. If the attacking player has more strength than the defender, two block dice are rolled and the attacker gets to pick a result. If the defending player has more strength, two dice are rolled but the defender picks the result. If one player has at least twice the strength of the other, three dice are rolled and the player with the higher strength picks the result.
Other nearby players can influence the roll by assisting the block. You don't have to tell them to do this, if the criteria are met they will automatically assist. Other players can assist the attacking player if the defending player is in one of their tackle zones, and they are not in any other opposing players' tackle zones. Players on the other team can assist the defending player if the attacking player is in one of their tackle zones, and they are not in any other opposing players' tackle zones. This is a difficult concept to explain in words so please refer to the diagram below.
In this example, Urgash is throwing a block against Ivan Kellhoofer. He is able to get an assist from Grishnak, because Grishnak has a tackle zone on Ivan and no other opponent has a tackle zone on Grishnak. Snagga Throttlesnot, however, cannot assist. He does have a tackle zone on Ivan, but he also has a tackle zone on him from another player, Helmut Headreka.
If this block were being thrown by Snagga Throttlesnot instead, every player in the diagram would be involved in the block. Helmut has a tackle zone on Snagga, and Grishnak and Urgash have a tackle zone on Ivan. None of the players are in another opponent's tackle zone.
Every player who can assist the block adds one to the effective strength of their team's player to determine the number of dice to roll for the block. For example, if a player with three strength is blocking a player with four strength, normally two dice would be rolled and the defender chooses the result. If one player assists the player with three strength, they effectively have four strength for the block and a single die is rolled. If two players are able to assist, the effective strength becomes five and now it is two dice, attacker chooses.
The Blood Bowl game will do all these calculations for you and show you the result before you even start the block. If you're confused as to why a result is what it is, you can right click once on the player you are blocking and the game will highlight all players that would be assisting that block. Right clicking a second time will execute the block, so be careful.
For other actions besides Block, the result is determined by roll of a standard six-sided die. The odds of success depend on the character's stats, usually Agility. The base chance of success is determined by this table:
RELEVANT STAT: 1 2 3 4 5 6
SUCCEEDS ON: 6+ 5+ 4+ 3+ 2+ 1+
For example, if the stat the action is based on is a 3, you need to get a result of 4 or higher to succeed at the action. All actions have modifiers that make them more or less likely to succeed. Players also have skills that can have an effect on certain skill rolls, though in most cases it just provides a free reroll if the first roll fails. I'll give a brief rundown of some of the more common actions and modifiers.
Dodging is the action of moving when you are in an opponent's tackle zone. This requires a roll based off the Agility stat. You get a +1 modifier for attempting the action. There is also a negative modifier based on the number of opposing tackle zones covering the space you are moving to. It does not matter how many tackle zones are in the space you are leaving. If the roll succeeds, you move to the next square and can continue with your move. If you end up in another square with a tackle zone, however, you would have to make another dodge roll to leave that one as well. If you fail a dodge roll, your player is knocked over in the square they were moving to and there is a Turnover.
Picking up the ball is also an Agility roll. There is a +1 modifier to the roll for attempting a pick up, and a negative modifier based on how many opposing tackle zones are covering the ball. You must attempt to pick up the ball if you move into the same square as it, so you can't run a player over the ball to assist a block and then have someone else pick it up. If you succeed at the roll, your player picks up the ball and can continue with their turn. If they fail, the ball will randomly scatter into any of the eight adjacent squares. If a player is in that square they can attempt to catch it. If nobody on your team ends up with the ball after a failed pick up, there is a Turnover.
Passing the ball requires two Agility rolls, one for the passer and one for the receiver if the ball gets to them. The pass has a modifier based on the distance the ball is being thrown(the game shows you the modifiers when you are highlighting possible receivers) and the number of tackle zones the passer is in. If the roll is a 1, it is a fumble and the passer drops the ball in an adjacent square. If the roll succeeds, it is an accurate pass and goes right to the player. If the pass fails but not critically, it is an inaccurate pass. The game will calculate where it ends up and it is still technically possible for it to get to the receiver, but this is unlikely. Catching is an agility roll as well. If the pass is accurate, there is a +1 modifier to the catch roll. There is also a negative modifier based on the number of tackle zones the catcher is in. Finally, if there is any opposing players between the passer and the receiver, the opponent can pick one of them to try to intercept the pass. Intercepting is an agility roll with a -2 modifier, as well as a negative modifier based on the number of tackle zones the player who is attempting the interception is in. After all that, if any player on the passing team has the ball at the end of the play, their turn continues. If not, there is a Turnover.
There is one last thing I'd like to explain quick before I move on to the general strategies, and that's the Blitz. Normally, you can only choose to move a player or make a block with them, not both. Once per turn, however, you can declare a blitz and allow one player to do both. The blitz has to be declared before the player moves at all, so make sure you've planned the move out in advance. The game will automatically declare the blitz for you if you pick the target of the block as the end of your move action, but if you want to throw the block before your move action, you will need to manually declare the blitz by clicking the lightning bolt icon in the UI. (I'll put a picture in to show what I'm talking about later)
This pretty much covers the basic skills that you will use most of the time. In the next post, I'll go over a few strategies and basic tips for players. If any of this isn't clear enough or you have any questions, please feel free to ask me here or in IRC.
