Top 5 Random Stat Players in Blood Bowl - Top 5 Friday (Bonehead Podcast)

[@PsychCaptain]

I'm glad for the final shout out for the Treeman. I was really waiting for that. a 50% increase in speed and the ability to stand up? Yes Please!

[@ketilkn]

I got a magic shoes 👟 special play card for my halfling Freeman in my last game. +MA, sure feet, sprint was amazing. He already had block, grab, break tackle. I won the game. Almost got a 5 square sack in turn a turn 8 kick off. Unfortunately, I rolled six pushes. There are no results on the table that the treeman cannot use. On 14 you can get block.

[@garrhettroebuck8402]

Stunties seem like perfect random stat takers... not because they are great with the stats but because all the time you are saving up SPPs they are not bloating your teams TV

[@PsychCaptain]

Random skills seem like a good idea for them, because you can cut them cheaply though.

[@garrhettroebuck8402]

@@PsychCaptain You can (especially underworld gobbos) but I prefer not to keep firing and rehiring players if I can just have them sit on the SPP... and you could end up with a cheeky +ST skink who can cage dive better than a Wardancer now that leap is nerfed.

[@JorisVDC]

One stat increase was completely ignored in this list: +AV is only coasting 10k. Which makes it more effective and reasonable to take. Especially on AV 8+ players. Like a Wardancer, sure they have the combat skill but they are doing most of the lifting for your team, so if they do get knocked off the pitch, you are suffering a lot. Because they do so much heavy lifting, it means that they are going to fail a dodge and/or get fouled. Having the extra armor to protect your Wardancer is key IMHO. MB Is HUGE VS a AV 8+, so reducing that threat does make sense to me. I am looking forward to testing out the new Vampires, with modified FAQ because RAW Gazing people is ridiculous: it prohibits the Gazed player from using any skills, unless they specifically mention that they work with a Tackle Zone. So no Blodge, no Thick Skull, no Sure Hands? It might be intended but if the ruling stands as it is, this has a major impact.

[@THEMoredros]

My personal #1 player for random stats is the snotling, on the Underworld team. First of all, you want to avoid bloat, so by saving SPP, your snotling that has miraculously not died is still at minimum TV. The stat we really want on a snotling is +AG, though honestly +AV isn't worthless on a player that you're having intentionally stand next to your Rogre. an AG 2+, 12th player snotling is a nightmare of a receiver. Noone wants to waste a blitz on your snotling receiver when you also have a gutter runner waiting to receive. The kicker is being the 12/13/14th player though. No animosity to the snotlings, and having extra players, means that enemy coaches can't mark all of your players until they've broken armor on some players. You cannot leave an AG 2+ snotling unmarked in your backline, it's a huge scoring threat. If it still hasn't died, give it extra arms for 1+ catches and pickups and now they either have to blitz it or mark it with 2 players. And if they're blitzing your snotlings, they aren't blitzing your gutter runner, your thrower, or your blitzer.

[@F0RS00TH]

This would be true if the increased stats did not change team value. Unfortunately they do, so paying that much for an AV 6+ player seems like a poor investment.

[@ProtoLegend]

I feel Ghouls are a good random stats, can open up a throw game, can be faster runner (with dodge native), Str is Str, and the added benefit if you don't get what you need, the cost is relatively low to replace. Esp compared to WW (which is amazing) that's and expensive miss roll

[@tzusun6876]

I think the option to take secondary skills is pretty important. There are definitely some players that could benefit from some stats, but if you get a bad roll a secondary skill could be a real boon. The Dark Elf blitzer is a good example, I think-is a bit of AGI or PA better than, say, Guard?

[@giles4565]

this is definitely a key consideration when looking at the viability of random stats. 100% taking guard on a DE blitzes over +mv. Another good example is wearwolf, MB is just amazing on them so would take that over a lot of stats.

[@-Joe--]

I realise these guys are kinda covered by Throwers. But Halfling Hefties are my first plan to save up with :)

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Haha, I love the Hefty! When our league re-opens we're going to have a Stunty passing award for the most Comps :D

[@ledeasoakenbough]

Honorable Mention - Ogres. It is just hard as hell to get them SPP. My favorite Ogre rolled an AGI up, Move up, and Block. He became my 5th Blitzer or 3rd Catcher on my human team.

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Hey Ledeas!! Yeah definitely! Bloodtithe was very much on board with this - when Ogres get a stat increase they get really exciting! Downside is - that's a *lot* of Casualties, and MA6 (while good) is not as good as Block & another skill!!

[@ledeasoakenbough]

@@BoneheadPodcast Move 6 Ogre on human teem kept him with the team. On Ogre team, maybe not so much.

[@MangoFandangoBB]

Top 5 Fun Players for Random Stat: - Throw-Ra Ma7, Ag3+ anyone? - Fanatic (Goblins) Ma4 for more hits or take the double for Block - Norse Catcher Ma8 Ag2+ or St4 blodger - Pestigor Ag2+ becomes a frightening ball hawk - Skinks Ma9 Ag2+ stunty magic

[@deckerCKY]

Good call on the fanatic. Probably after brawler/block and mighty blow, but movement is a huge buff to them.

[@BoneheadPodcast]

OOf Mango - The fanatic at MA4 is superb!!

[@deckerCKY]

Disagree on werewolf: they need blodge, dodge and sidestep on normals more than any stat. Any stat is nice on a werewolf....but the team probably benefits from those same spp being spend on normal skills. I feel the same way about Elven Union catchers - high stat under-skilled players need skills, not more stats. I feel like a lot of the players you highlighted ignore the context of what was given up for stats. Can a beastmen really afford to give up 2 skills for a random stat? That block/stat beastmen would be block/tackle/mighty blow, for example. My top 6 would be: -blitzers: agree with everything you said, particularly on teams with 4 blitzers where ignoring cookie cutter development on 1 doesn't have a huge impact, and where one can have a big game to decide which one to push for stats. -wardancer: effectively a pre-developed Blitzer - everything said about blitzers applies, plus dodge. -Bull centaurs: the only non-big guy more expensive than a war dancer and werewolf. Block is their first skill. After that, because of the nerf to break tackle, none of the other skills matter too much. Any stat makes a bull into an amazing player, but AG or strength become ridiculous. After block, then roll stats until you roll AG or ST. Worst cast, you have a block, movement 8 bull (11 squares reliably!) after 3 skills (190k tv) which is awesome, and if you manage one of the key stats, you have a beast. If you manage strength or ag, pair with break tackle. From past experience stat freak bulls melt your opponent's brains. Focusing on loading spp on bulls for stats also keeps the overall team value down (try to hog all spp on your bulls, aside from cas and MVPs for the blockers), meaning you have a very tv efficient roster unless you strike gold on bull stats. -Treemen: the increase from movement 2 to 3 effectively removes a mega trait. Super impactful improvement. Take block of you roll agility or strength. -Thro Ra: adding speed or agility to a tomb kings team breaks the mold. I'd be tempted to follow my bull centaur plan here - block and then stats, see what you end up with. -dwarf runner: ditto. Another player that hogs the spp on the dwarf team, and breaks the teams mold with any stat boost. Thro Ra and dwarf runners are really the same - slow bashy teams with well defined ball carriers who hog spp. Both would love any stat.

[@nemamiah7832]

Every Fling piece is a great piece to take +stat. You get to conserve TV, you get +MA Trees, you get 1 +MA Fling (or maybe +AG!) for 1T TD TTM shenanigans. And you need precisely 1 Fling with Doubles anyway for DP, so you don't care. This makes team management much easier. And the only result you don't want on +stat roll is +ST, because now it's unreasonably high TV value. I kept one +ST Fling and 1 Guard Fling for cagedive fun before, but now it's way too high TV to be effective, unfortunately.

[@davidblake5415]

I currently have a +Ag +Move Fling. Sometimes known as a GrifFling

[@pageantofinertia]

Vampires. Vampires? Vampires!

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Poor Vampires...!

[@malhildreth8418]

Please don't forget about The Teams of Legend. Some of us are still playing those teams and would like to see your opinion on them :)

[@PsychCaptain]

Hasn't he done a few already?

[@malhildreth8418]

@@PsychCaptain They have been covered in starting rosters and team development which is awesome. I was referring to this video specifically.

[@WoWisdeadtome]

Any sort of blitzer (even if they're not named blitzer, something you're going to blitz with often) type player is probably a good candidate for this. They generally have better than average stats all around for your team and will benefit from anything, passing the least, but anything is at least decent, if not good. Furthermore, they start with a combat skill like block and/or dodge so that first upgrade isn't as crucial for them to be good.

[@BeefyCrunch]

If wanting a double skill instead of the stat roll.... Does it cost 18 or 12???

[@F0RS00TH]

It still costs 18. You reduce your SPP before the roll.

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Sadly so!

[@13rym26]

I think a big question here is this: is anybody worth the tv bloat of a +st player?

[@JorisVDC]

This is the elephant in the room. ST Upgrade costing 80k is very important, yet on the right player it's worth it because it's like having an extra assist permanently, it's almost as good as having a twelfth player on the pitch. So if the player has the right skills to keep him on the pitch, it's worth it. So in my book Blitzers that can easily become Blodgers are prime candidates for +ST. Linemen are maybe not the best, because they have different duties. It will take a while before you can get a proper reading on this.

[@deckerCKY]

It's double edged - it's a huge tv and spp investment, so isn't as tempting , but strength 4 (particularly mobile strength 4) has a huge impact and other teams are less likely to bring their own. Remember that agility got less impactful (due to splitting passing) compared to last edition.

[@bradp6452]

I think the structure of the league is very important here. Unless the commish is running long season or removes the 20k per season redraft cost 18 spp is a long way to go for anyone who is not a TD machine. Frenzy players without block need to get block even if they are touch down machines likely.

[@bradp6452]

I think the whole balance of leagues has been shifted even further to agility teams even with the passing nerf. Random lower value mvps hurt bash. TDs are worth more in winnings and redrafting I think. Players who can score are prime candidates for the stat ups which are generally on the agility teams.

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Brap, I'm struggling to disagree with you here!! I think you're bang on! It could be that saving the SPPs between season sees slower teams blosson early on in S2/3?!

[@pauldalton6999]

Troll slayers with any stat increase are awesome

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Great shout there Paul! Same thing with Frenzy, right? One less Rush roll to fail! :D

[@pauldalton6999]

Movement 7 jump up troll slayer best player I have ever had

[@lyracian]

I am still going to take Tackle or Strip Ball on the Wardancer first. Maybe Side Step and then save up for Stats. Unless I have one crazy game where I get 4 or more TD on a single player I cannot see ever waiting before getting first skill. You should do the opposite list; worst players for Random stats! I love Gutter Runners but with them not being able to get +MV it is quite a gamble to go fish for +AG and have to settle for an Armour bonus.

[@BoneheadPodcast]

Hahaha Nathan - that's the most Skaven thing I've heard in a while!

[@mikeenglish7063]

Black orcs..... damn get the strength upgrade. Strength 5 , mighty blow 👌

[@labmansd]

how about the ogre runt punter

[@davidbowman2501]

I can't see saving 18spp for a roll on a stat up on many players over getting two skills. Maybe the treeman. I think the worst stat up for a wardancer would be an AV upgrade. I would much rather have 9MV over 9+AV.

[@farlanewhitty1149]

Yo, Bonehead Podcast: notice no mention of Av increase... does Ma trump Av in all circumstances? Rat ogre??

[@Dreath2623]

Hmm I just don't see the value in waiting, two skills is almost always better than one stat up now. I'd rather a blodge, side-step delf blitzer/welf or dodge guard than a mv8

[@F0RS00TH]

Yeah, with leagues only lasting 10 games, then a redraft, I just do not see value in waiting that long.

[@andrewlittleton4690]

@@F0RS00TH I think if you are doing a redraft and keeping players, stat ups become a better investment. Otherwise, really risky

[@Dreath2623]

@Nathan Struble str 2 gnoblars op, GW pls nerf

[@danielcostas2557]

Skinks, +1 move, st, ag are all great

[@dambrooks7578]

Welves, how dull...