Top 5 Blood Bowl Teams for Beginners - Top 5 Friday (Bonehead Podcast)

[@Nappa316]

I ran a Blood Bowl demo at my local game store with the 2020 rules using the 2016 starter teams. In one of the demos the guy I was showing the game choose orcs and had more fun just trashing my human team more than trying to score. In the end I won 2-0 but by the end my team had 3 dead, 2 MNG, and 3 ko'ed. I made sure to tell him that in game terms I won but if this was a league I lost more than I won. By the end of that days demos I showed 3 people how to play, and got several people interested in starting a league.

[@slamminjammin69]

i think an equally important factor for getting someone into the game is the team you have them face. ie. not dwarfs

[@MrGhosta5]

dwarfs are anti fun. between block, thick skull, and armor they're just about impossible to injure. They also have tackle which hard counters dodge teams. Sure hands also makes getting the ball away from them difficult as you can't just push them with strip ball like every other ball carrier with blodge.

[@pierate4701]

Playing against a good Wood Elf team is torture for a new player. Dwarves at least you can win on the merit of big guys and running goals.

[@chrisjohn4886]

Was the “Dwarves on the short list” a scripted gag . Great job as always Ben .

[@Flippotycoon4583]

Oh this is perfect me and a few friends are getting into blood bowl together a few of us played before but most are completely new to it :)

[@Berry-gs4xr]

Hmm, actually i would take 5 Teams to teach the game. Match 1- Chaos Choosen: (but without any bigguys) They are realy basic and teach the fighting mechanism in the game and the blitz Action. Also they got no skills, so this is the most Unchanged experience. Match 2 - Dwarfs: We stay with the combat element of the game, but swap out the Higher Streangh with block to teach the Block-Skill the first time. But the Focus on this lesson is, about Player Positions. We stay with something, the beginner allready knows (the fight), and add a leak of mobility to get some tactical elements to the game. Match 3 - Undead: Here we teach the use of mobility and Dodge (we got a quick mobile Ghoul) Also we introduce Big Guys without any disadvantage. So we still got the Combat element with blocking Players. We got Player, which are slower then others, we got high streangh Fighter and add the mobile dodging ball carrier. Match 4 - Skaven: The lesson how it is to be beaten up, because your team is fragile. The newby was treaded well over 3 games with tough teams, which can fight pretty well and introduced new things step by step. This experience is about the luxus of mobility, to introduce the passing game and maybe, if we use a ratogre we introduce some new skills for combat this way, too. But Also the player is tought here how to safe up weak and fragile players. Match 5 - Humans: This team combines the lessons teached by the 4 previous teams in one Roster Also we got the opportunity to introduce stunties for the first time and so we can teach stunty dodges and throw teammate. Also our newcommer will be able to test out different things he learned here and test combinations of the previous lessons.

[@david7019]

I think humans are great for learning the rules of blood bowl, but they are a difficult team for a beginner to win with

[@Peremptor]

They really need good coaching (i.e. you got to adapt to your opponent you just can't play to your strength since that is your versatility after all).

[@PhotoReactionVideos]

Fantastic recommendations as always, thanks Ben! Your channel is the best way to learn Blood Bowl for new players and also keep us veterans inspired!

[@davidbowman2501]

My list: 1. Humans 2. Orcs (no animosity used at first) 3. Dark Elf 4. Chaos Chosen 5. Shambling Undead Just outside the top 5 I had Skaven and Black Orcs.

[@xeghys]

I had an idea of a concept that maximized investment into blood bowl by giving you the most teams with the fewest purchases. You start with Human, Dwarf, Chaos Chosen which are all good starter teams, but you also get OWA, Nobility, Nurgle, and Khorne . If you add Skaven and Goblin you also pick up Underworld and Chaos Dwarf (subbing goblins for hobgoblins) assuming you get an Ogre for the human team, a troll for the Goblin, a rat ogre for skaven, and a mino for Chosen, you have ability to field a chaos renegade team. (Also colleges of Beasts and Fire) The only missing element would be halflings for human & OWA and dark elf & orc for Pact. If an Orc team was added - Orcs and Black Orcs open up. (Colleges of Metal and Shadows (with a single dark elf lineman)) So theoretically if you bought 6 teams (Human, Orc, Dwarf, Chaos Chosen, Skaven, and Goblin), picked up a few extra minis and big guys here and there, painted them all with the same team colors, and numbered every mini differently, you would be able to field 14 (18) different teams. 18 because you also give yourself opportunity with dungeonbowl - Fire (dwarf, ogre, (goblin sibbing for) gnoblar, & (human linemen subbing for) marauders), metal (humans, orcs, black orcs, goblins), shadows (goblins, skaven, dark elf*), and Beasts(chaos chosen, minotaur, rat ogre, beastmen (as themselves or subbing for), khorngors, and pestigors).

[@xeghys]

I do realize that we’re looking at a total investment of about $250+ USD, but thats still cheaper than a 40K army. and it can be done in increments off that first 3 team set up. The other advantage in those 6 teams is that most of the figures have slots for the slotted bases. It makes basing the a whole lot easier.

[@carthagegaming5545]

Dwarves are my #1 so far. So easy and forgiving to play since they never get sent off the pitch

[@GrumblingGrognard]

Always surprised I don't see people recommend dwarfs. By far the easiest to start out with and will drill into the newbie how nice "block" is, as well as how important it is to keep you players vertical and 'in the game' (by watching what happens when he pounds his opponents). Sure, no passing game, no big-un...but THAT is half of the point: easy to learn without those distractions.

[@carthagegaming5545]

@@GrumblingGrognard passing is pretty awful anyways. Plus the worst feeling thing in bloodbowl is being down players. Orcs might be even more forgiving after a few games but dorfs to start for sure.

[@grumpfable]

One thing that don't make elves teams good for beginners imo : the ball handling is not a issue for them, while it is a super important part of the game for everyone else. A beginner can acquire bad habits with them.

[@JersyCityDevil]

Totally agree on Orks and Dark Elves. And actually on Humans under BB2020 as well. In older editions Humans could basically be classified as "worse Orks" or "worse Dark Elves" - but were still often recommended for beginners, which I always thought was a huge mistake. The new rebalancing actually worked wonders for Humans and I would recommend them now. One thing I keep seeing after decades of Blood Bowl: A vast majority of coaches seems to believe that bash teams are somehow "easier" to play which probably comes from a line of thought that all teams require some amount of blocking to win but with bash teams you can just focus one this one aspect and ignore everything else, thus making it easier. I really think this is a huge misconception. I've really seen a lot of players who have a decent amount of experience but can get caught totally off guard by anything that isn't straight punching, because they were introduced to bash teams by players who were also introduced to bash teams and so on. I have actually switched to recommending more fragile teams to new players and frankly, those players learn much more quickly to become much better players. I would actually recommend Skaven as a good team for learning, even if you might lose the first few matches - and specifically a Skaven team with lots of gutter runners and no rat ogre, so to not even tempt the coach to play the bash game.

[@FoulPet]

As a new player,I find Orcs and DE easy to manage than Skaven. Not that Skaven are impossible to play but Orcs are more forgiving on the line and DE are just good at everything. Learning on rats will teach you how to fill the injury box.

[@MEchanicAL_LSTAR]

It’s been a minute, but seem to remember in second edition the game taught you with every player was a lineman, it added the positional players further on in the rules.

[@adamwilcox8947]

I've introduced a few players to bloodbowl recently, there's a reason why humans and orcs were always the starter teams out if the box... All three of my new players chose the orcs!

[@JackRabbit002]

See quite new to Blood Bowl, played a few games years ago but think its a much more suitable system for me nowadays. Sadly the 3 teams I have are none on your top 5 starter teams Being Imperial Nobles, Black Orcs and Old World Alliance so..... I actually did hear Dark Elves are pretty unforgiving and a better team to start over standard humans which I've played a few practice games with. Good video though man I'll have to follow it.

[@MangoFandangoBB]

Oh wow! Just what the doctor ordered, thanks! Where can I vote in future polls? I missed out on this one. Cheers,

[@matthewmutton]

has much changed to this list in the last 2 years or will there be an update coming soon?

[@jamesharrison142]

No, 2020 refers to the edition, which is the current edition of the game

[@3ggh3ad]

GOBLINS! its all fun and teaches the player not to take the game seriously

[@MrGhosta5]

Norsica for everyone having block and amazons for everyone having dodge by default. dodge is a really good new player skill as it will help mitigate movement mistakes that new players make. Block is good because it removes having to worry about both downs.

[@newlegendbanter9879]

Very good list actually, I didn’t think of the undead but would happily swap for the Lizardman team I thought of prior to watching this...only thing I disagree with against you and the voting public is chaos chosen, yes they have good stats, but the lack of initial skills can be a turn off I know they’re a bit glass cannon but I did have Norse on my team for the instant 1 die block advantage

[@irked4975]

Skaven are not a beginner friendly team. My league this past season (2016 rules) had a brand new player playing skaven. He had a couple of 7s and maybe a regular game in... First game of the season I played him with my dwarves, called the game at about turn 12, because I was up 3-0 and he could only field 3 rats. A couple of other players ran the score on him or cp farmed him because they were more concerned about making the playoffs. Fortunately he is going to play next season, probably orcs though. Skaven are an advanced team. I would also recommend Lizardmen, they are straightforward and good. I made my leagues playoffs with them my first season. Not knowing what I was doing, I still did well.

[@D00M3R_MAVS]

Undead I think I will go with just because I like how they look and they're meant to be alright. they still kind of look like the older ones as well, just with newer poses.

[@Demolitiondude]

The living is overrated.

[@DarthPulven]

the box comes with nobles and black orks. can i proxy them as humans and orks. ?

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Hey DarthPulven! The Nobility will work fine as Humans (Throwers-Throwers, Blitzers/Bodyguards-Blitzers, Linewomen-Catchers), but the Black Orcs have too many Goblins to work as the Orc team. But - the Black Orc team will allow you to use the 2 Blitzers and 2 BUBs as 4 Blitzers if you get 1 box of Orcs!

[@mih2]

Just what the doc ordered. Cheers

[@sunnycaljon5319]

I just started blood bowl this week and joined a league at my local shop, only cost me $10 to join the league. Game 1, 3 of my players are out of next game, 1 died and I had so much fun. I chose skaven because I have always loved the look of skaven in Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar. I got rekt by them necromantic horror team, knocked one of their werewolved into the crowd off the pitch. It was so fun but at the same time I have no idea how I am going to handle next weeks game since I dont have anymore gutter runners alive or allowed to play game 2 and only 1 blitzer allowed to play. I am probably going to lose my whole team by game 4 :(

[@johnmatthews9808]

Journeymen :)

[@eriksjogren800]

Thanks

[@raphwalker9123]

Easiest team is Lizardmen ,they got best linemen and best ball carriers with the skinks.

[@elite4mac245]

Is there any channels that stream a league in good quality?

[@ericpaulsen8969]

Humans, orcs, undead, dark elves, dwarves

[@Karate-xt4sk]

Khorne is best because blood for the bloodgod in a game called blood bowl

[@houstonpiercy6873]

stuntys explode when you look at them hahaha!

[@FoulPet]

If you don't look at them, they score touchdowns.

[@geewoods6590]

Bonehead Top 5 5. Chaos Chosen 4. Undead 3. Orcs 2. Dark Elves 1. Humans Community Top 5: 5. Skaven 4. Chaos Chosen 3. Dwarfs 2. Orcs 1. Humans

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Thanks Gee!

[@clydefroglol]

great profile pic ;)

[@geewoods6590]

@@clydefroglol ty

[@mattellis3297]

Hey Ben. Do you have a PO box people can send stuff for a wedding present?

[@dianatoboso8311]

I've always heard that DE are a difficult team, not suit forma beginners, it is a surprise to find it here

[@dambrooks7578]

Orcs are great for learning, although my son started l9ving them filthy Rats je is interested no in having an Old World Alliance team...

[@afiblacksails23]

I believe the best way to jump in is trial by fire… if you don’t forget half the rules, special abilities and have to spend two hours with the rule book open per half then you didn’t learn the game.

[@cozetteolivier4705]

dwarf & ork are the own team for beginner.use basic strategy

[@adamsboringvids]

Now do teams for advanced players?!

[@perer005]

Nurgle, Wood Elf, High Elf, Chaos, Lizardmen.

[@jamesmartin770]

Engagement

[@timseyer6769]

I still really think Dwarves are one of the worst teams to start with unless the person is a total Dwarves fan. Of course you are more likely to like a team you like the background of. But the more important positioning is the more difficult it is to play imo. I played blood Bowl since 1998 and I am still too bad at positioning to successfully play anything slower than humans.

[@ericpaulsen8969]

Honestly, dwarves almost play themselves. You are playing/positioning for a 2-1 or 1-0 win.

[@carthagegaming5545]

@@ericpaulsen8969 They also never leave the pitch, so over the course of a game, positioning gets way easier

[@henrik2518]

"Flexible" Humans = Second tier bash team who lack the strength and agility to exploit their one strength: speed.

[@syteanric]

First!