Big guy for each race worth first purchase?

[Saica-Fox]

or wait till i get more funds....i mean is it worth buying the big guys early on or just save the money?

[Dalwin]

for most races I would say yes, but not the dwarves. Also starting tomorrow there will be some races that don't have a big guy at all.

[Arrwmkr]

Good question but they can turn a match

[Luminous]

Depends. There are teams that don't particularly need them, like Wood Elves and Skaven since they can play a more agile game. Bashy teams can benefit from the extra strength on the pitch though. They tend to be unreliable at times, and that can cost you games. They will take a long time to level up though, so getting them earlier rather than later will help you level them up.

[Dr0W]

Depends on the race. Some of them are not reliable at all, I really hate Trolls and Minotaur. But Treeman are cool.

[Done25]

I'd second not rushing it on dwarfs. The Deathroller doesn't get really good until you buy the extra bribe upgrade for your stadium.

[Professor Freaksworth]

I never take Skaven big guy. Gutter Runners and Stormvermin are all you need.

[Palo Gutspiller]

Wood Elf Treeman helps protect the rest of the roster by taking hits on the line of scrimmage and tying up 2-3 opposing players and sometimes more if the opponent foolishly commits half his team to taking him down. Even if he never moves his presence in the center of the pitch creates a road block the other team needs to move around. Blocking/Blitzing opposing players and pushing them into contact with the Treeman is good, too. Grab is a popular early skill choice on Treemen which helps Woodies do 1 turn TD's more easily.

Human Ogre is vital to their roster as they need the muscle and Guard he provides once he levels up. Bone Head is annoying but it's much better than Really Stupid and I think slightly better than Wild Animal.

Rat Ogre is a problem. He's unreliable and worth a Wizard and generally not worth having but some people like him. Skaven don't have the guard or muscle to protect him so he's often beaten to a pulp and out of the game quickly since his AV 8 isn't very good. That said, a Break Tackle Juggs Rat Ogre is a pretty good cage breaker.

Minotaur is unreliable and you really don't want to use a Mino to blitz when you could be blitzing with a Claw POMBing Tackle Beastman.

Troll is useful and cheap muscle for the Orcs. He's pretty worthless vs Elves but he's good vs other bash teams with his Regen helping him take hits and come back for more. Early on he's not worth taking on a starting Orc roster but later on he becomes more necessary.

[Fluffyburrito]

It depends on the race.

Of the races available, and including the upcoming Lizardmen and Wood Elves, you definitely want it to start on:

Races you absolutely want them on:

Humans: Ogres are cheap for their strength and they have the best big guy "disadvantage", bone-head. You can well afford an Ogre will all starting lineups.

Lizardmen: Kroxigor. Kroxigor is one of the best buy guys and works well with the entire team at tying up other players with his tail. Very easy to include in their most popular team roster.


Races you "maybe" want them on:

Skavens - 4 gutter runners with only dodge is hard to play with at the beginning so a rat ogre to help on defense is appreciated. Just don't put him on the LOS: Rogres are great at tying players up and blitzing, but they have low AV compared to other big guys.

Chaos - While Chaos must choose less re-rolls or 1 less chaos warrior to pick up a Minotaur, it isn't a bad idea. Minotaur is your best "murderer" since he will have claw and mighty blow right at level 2, so getting him as early as possible can be of big benefit. Players dying snowballs the game in your favor. The only downside is you sacrifice early re-rolls (even though Chaos suck early anyway) to get him, so if your players happen to get injured - even at their armor value - recovering is almost impossible without deleting the team.

Races you almost never want a big guy on:

Orcs - Orcs have enough strength where a troll isn't necessary and a troll is only good when leveled and if you plan on using a goblin. Orcs want to buy up blitzers and black orcs first anyway, as these are core to any orc team, so they can't afford to pick up a troll early.

Wood Elves - With wardancers wood elves are aggressive enough not to need a treeman right away. The tree is useful and a pretty good big guy, and getting him early does help him be more relavant, but wood elves have expensive players and wardancers cost the same as a treeman - and wardancers are far more important to the team.

[poison doll]

i really don't think orc big guy is worth it. sure, he's strong as all hell, but he's thoroughly unreliable, and even more significantly, if you take a troll you're giving up either extra re-rolls (especially useful when none of your players can pick up the ball worth a damn) or a fourth black orc blitzer, and black orcs are wayy too strong to come out the gate with fewer than 4 of.

my preferred orc starting roster is

4x black orc 320k
4x blitzer 360k
4x lineman 200k

2x reroll 120k

alternately, you can sub a lineman for an apothecary, but they do fundamentally the same thing in the early game: give you a little bit of a buffer to manage one of your meaningful players being injured. either way, you're very likely to get at least 50k with your first match, which you can spend on whichever of those things you passed on. and then, if you really feel like it's necessary, save up for a troll.

[Vacc]

Most races you don't really need it. Kroxigor, Beast of Chaos (Nurgle) and the big guys on the stunty teams are the only ones I always take. I never take Rat Ogres they don't really fit the way Skaven play and can end up costing you turns. Trolls are hit and miss for ORcs, they've got such a good roster I tend to avoid it. I never take a Tree Man on WElves. Ogres are fun and they've a 10k price reudction in BB2.

That said you can always take one if you don't care as much about min/maxing. They're not a huge handicap just a little less efficent of a TV spend, especially against a good player who keeps them tied up some 50-100k of TV the whole game.

[2LambBuna]

Humans: yes. ogre is cheap. skip the catchers instead as they are SSP hogs and you want to level your linemen and blitzers

Lizardmen: no. 6 saurus, 5 skinks, 3 rerolls. buy kroxigor later though, he is the best big guy, but they don't need him much at low TR, the sauruses pack a lot of muscle

skaven: no, getting all 4 gutter runners is better. you may want the rat ogre later, BUT use him only on defence, hes not needed on attack. play the rat orge at the back to blitz advanced runners, not on the scrimage line (use your weediest 3 line rats for that)

Chaos - same as lizards, chaos warriors pack enough punch without the minotaur at low TR. the minotaur is less reliable than the kroxigor too

Orcs - depends if you want to field a goblin or not

Wood Elves - same as skaven, get the tree later for defence only, if you like

Dwarfs - you can only use the roller for 1 play as its a secret weapon. it might be nice vs another bashy team like chaos or orcs to get an early lead in the battle of attrition, but i wouldn't bother, dwarfs are hard little bastards anyway

humans should start with one. lizards and chaos should buy one later. others it depends on how you want to play.