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Contents 1 Work in Progress: Blood Bowl 1.1 Strategy 1.1.1 Bashing 1.1.2 Bowling 1.2 Blood Bowl Players 1.3 Player Actions 1.4 Turn-overs

[edit] Work in Progress: Blood Bowl

[edit] Strategy

There are two main strategic approaches to a game of Blood Bowl: bashing and bowling. (This is by necessity an abstraction, as there is a grey area between these strategies, but it is usually helpful to think about strategy in terms of opposing extremes.)

[edit] Bashing

The bashing strategy is fundamentally about control. As a bashing coach, you want to control the game to such an extent that the opposing coach is powerless to stop you. You accomplish this by hurting opposing players more than they hurt you, thus achieving numerical superiority. Bashing play revolves around blocking as much as possible and around trapping opposing players so that they can't easily move away, allowing you to block them again and again, until they are injured and removed from play. Successful bashing relies on players with high ST and AV and skills like Guard (facilitating blocks) and Mighty Blow (facilitating injuries).

At the heart of the bashing strategy also lies time management. The bashing coach wants to hurt as many opposing players as possible while keeping the ball safe. As the ball is usually safest when the bashing team is on offense, it is often in the interest of the bashing coach to delay scoring until the last possible turn, not giving the opposing team any chance to recover. This tactic of "stalling" is considered unsportsmanlike by many bowling coaches.

[edit] Bowling

The bowling strategy is fundamentally about speed. As a bowling coach, you want to score as quickly as possible. This pressures the opposing team to score back, ideally forcing them into making risky plays and dropping the ball. If they do score back, that allows the bowling team the chance of another lightning-fast touchdown. Bowling play revolves around moving the ball as quickly as possible and around forcing opponent mistakes. Successful bowling relies on players with high MA and AG and skills like Dodge and Side Step (for avoiding fights).

At the heart of the bowling strategy also lies injury management. Players that are suitable for bowling usually have low AV and are easily injured. The bowling coach wants to keep the players healthy and in play and thus wants to avoid fights. As there is considerably less fighting in the game when facing another bowling coach, it is usually in the interest of the bowling coach to avoid playing bashy coaches altogether (if at all possible, depending on the league structure). This meta-tactic of "cherry-picking" is considered unsportsmanlike by many bashing coaches.

[edit] Blood Bowl Players

At the heart of a Blood Bowl game stands the player. (The human player controlling the Blood Bowl players is called the Coach.) Each player is represented by an appropriate miniature and has statistics and skills that cover his or her effect on play. There are four player statistics:

• MA (Move Allowance) indicates how fast the player is.
• ST (Strength) indicates the player's basic fighting ability.
• AG (Agility) indicates how good the player is at playing the ball.
• AV (Armor Value) indicates how hard it is to injure the player.

In addition, players may have skills that affect any number of circumstances in play. Some of the more commonly used skills are Block (for fighting), Dodge (for avoiding fights), Sure Hands (for picking up the ball), Pass (for throwing the ball) and Catch (for catching the ball).

[edit] Player Actions

In his turn, a coach may have each player take one of the following actions:

• Move - Move the player through empty squares (Opposing players may try to trip the moving player if he or she moves close to them).
• Block - Hit an adjacent opposing player who is standing.

In addition, the following four actions may be taken by one player per team turn:

• Blitz - Move and then Block an adjacent opposing player who is standing (or Block and then Move).
• Foul - Move and then kick an adjacent opposing player who is prone.
• Pass - Move and then throw the ball.
• Hand-Off - Move and then give the ball to an adjacent player.

Some skills also allow for special player actions.

[edit] Turn-overs

If a player action should fail, the team turn ends immediately (with some minor exceptions) This is called the turn-over rule, and is a defining rule of the game. The turn-over rule makes every action tense for the coaches, and together with the four-minute rule (a team turn must be completed within four minutes) it can make the game very high-paced.