Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition - Those Wacky Goblins!

An initial review of the goblin units, general tactics, and an overview of the drive by drive goals.

Synopsis

Looking over BB games on youtube, reading reviews, I decided to give the goblins a chance as my first team. So far I haven't been utterly disappointed. For those curious about the play style, the tactic to go with is "beat the ever (un)living snot out of their best and brightest before the first touch down!" Keep reading and I'll go over the units and tactics I use when I play.

Players

Let's start with the stars of the team, the secret weapon wielders:

The Chainsaw Goblin (Looney)

One of those units that will make you scream OP if you face them, or laugh with glee. They roll for attacks different than most, skipping the usual block dice and going straight for a d6. On a 1 they hit themselves, otherwise they roll straight against the armour value of their target. This makes the looney ridiculously strong, as they can take down even the highest strength targets with relative ease. They also add 3 to the AV die roll for injuries, which means even the treemen are at risk of being knocked down or worse. The shameful side though, they don't get SPP for causing injuries or deaths on attacks.

The Ball and Chain Goblin (Fanatic)

Round and round and round they go. Where they stop, well that's directable. The fanatic will spin one square at a time, up to 3 squares movement (before go for it rolls) and their general direction is the only thing you can plot. They'll move randomly either to the square you wanted, or the two adjacent squares to either side. If they move into a square which is occupied, they throw a block against that target (if standing) or roll a foul attack (if prone). With ridiculous strength (ST7!) they score two dice against every big guy and 3 against everyone else. And with 3 movements, they can potentially block 3 times in a turn (or even 5, if you love rolling dice). The downside however is they can't carry the ball at all, the ball and chain ties up their hands. Passes to them are auto-fumbles. Likewise with the looney, they don't get SPP for injuries incurred by attacks. This means you're likely to not be leveling this guy up unless he scores MVP.

The Long Bomb (Bombardier)

This goblin comes equipped with an unlimited supply of bombs. Potentially the worst of the special units, he throws the bombs at targets (requiring a standard throw roll). Since goblins are all stunty, they suffer -1 to throws. Combined with mediocre agility (AG3) there will be a lot of fumbled bombs in your future. Throwing to short range is a 4+ roll. Bombs explode when they hit the ground, whether fumbled (blowing up the bombardier in the process and causing a turn over) or on target (causing an injury roll for the target and a d6 roll to hit for surrounding squares. I assume it's a dodge roll). In the event that the bomb is thrown to an occupied square, the player has a chance to catch the bomb and re-throw it immediately. This can produce a humorous (if deadly) game of hot potato until someone fumbles the bomb. Equipped for passing with skills (Passing is a doubles only category) the bombardier can become a formidable force on the field. As with his kin, bombs don't give SPP for injuries, though in all other respects he's just another goblin, so blocks and touchdowns still work like normal.

The Pogoer (.... Pogoer)

To start off, due to a change in the base rules, the pogo stick isn't counted as a special weapon. Rejoice! This is the only special unit that won't get tossed off the field at the end of the drive. They move farther than other goblins, start with Leap (which is great for entering or exiting tackle zones); and as with all the goblins, also has stunty and dodge. This is your best ball carrier due to the extra movement and Leap.

Special Unit Summary

• The Good
  
  • Amazing damage potential
    
  • Weapons mostly ignore or dominate conventional blocking
    
  • First drive domination

• The Bad
  
  • Unpredictable (chainsaw has a 1 in 6 chance of knocking yourself out or worse, ball and chain can hit your own team, or make you spin harmlessly back and forth instead of into your intended target, fumbling bombs is an instant turn over)
    
  • Only lasts for one drive (unless you succeed with bribes, also excludes the pogoer who isn't a secret weapon carrier)
    
  • Slower to level due to weapon injuries not awarding SPP (and ball and chain wielder being unable to handle theball
    
  • Secret Weapon trait stops Stunty from allowing you to dodge out of tackle zones without penalty (again, doesn't apply to pogoer).

Next up is the more conventional units:

Trolls

Perhaps the worst "big guy" player in the game, they come with "Really Stupid" and "Always Hungry" on top of "Loner". Really stupid means if they aren't next to a goblin when it's their time to act, they zone out on a roll of a 1-3. If they are, they work as if they had Bone Head (which itself is kind of bad news). Always Hungry only comes into play when attempting to throw goblins. Only basic goblins (none of the special units above) can be thrown, because they have the "right stuff" skill. The throw works as normal, including a fumble being a possibility, but has an additional hitch. Always Hungry means they will attempt to eat any goblin they pick up to throw. You make two die rolls before the throw even occurs (the second only happening if the first fails), and on a double 1 you devour (and kill) the goblin. Despite the risk, it's rare (a 1 in 36 chance) and can make you a one turn touchdown threat if the trolls are specced for throwing accurately. They are also fairly durable, stronger than the average player, and come with Regeneration on top of the team apothecary.

Goblins

Somewhat speedy with a decent movement, they're lackluster in most other respects. Their only saving grace (also their downfall) is they all have Stunty and Dodge. This combo allows you to weave in and out of redundant tackle zones as if it was just one person (so even 4 players on one side don't reduce your dodge results). It's almost better than elf dodging. Goblins are terrible blockers though, requiring two to get a one die block on most average players. They're decent ball handlers, but terrible throwers (particularly because of Stunty)

Strategy

Pre-Game

Since goblins are considered so weak, you will often get a silly amount of cash for temporary improvements. The first buy must be 3 bribes, but the rest is up to you.

First Drive With Weaponry

Regardless of whether you're receiving or not, now is your time to do some damage. Since your regular stock of goblins are rather lackluster, you have to even the playing field. This is where your special units come in. Each secret weapon can score ridiculous amounts of injuries (excluding the pogo), and it's your goal to put as many star players out of your misery as possible. My record is having the enemy team down to 6 men on the field by the time the drive ended and everyone was sent off. I like to put the fanatic up front and center to plow through the mid line (his movements don't invoke dodge rolls), with trolls on either side. The looney goes off to the side somewhere to be ready to hunt down a potential high value target (like wardancers).

The standard strategy is to take as long as you can to score, but goblins don't do well with this plan. That means you have kind of a short time frame to do as much damage as you can with your secret weapons and your trolls while trying your best to keep away opponents with the rest of your goblins as you move up field. Goblins don't make good cages (low strength, no block or tackle) so they have to move with as spread out a formation as they can to ensure a wide net is cast and that there's room between the goblin line and the ball carrier.

It's actually almost better if you don't receive the ball first, because the process of taking the ball from the opposing team can mean more time to slaughter your enemies. They'll be on the defensive, and you'll have ample access to the best of their blocking line (like ogres, trolls, flesh golems, etc.). Your secondary goal though is to get a touch down before your opponents while you have an advantage.

Second Drive With Weaponry

If you took the advice and bought up those 3 bribes, you'll have the chance to keep your secret weapons. I prioritize the chainsaw, ball and chain, and lastly the bombardier in order, because who wants someone that fumbles bombs on himself often over two others who dominate with ease? Assuming you get to keep them, "second verse, same as the first" as it were, try your damnedest to injure your opponents and thin their ranks of high end players, because this is going to be the last drive you have your weaponry. Hit them hard, try to foul with your secret weapon wielders once the ball is in your posession and down field, since they'll be thrown out anyways, don't hold back. You want to try to score a touchdown again if you can. Just rip the ball from them and run with it.

If you don't have your weapons anymore, then we move on to...

Every other drive

The plan is pretty straight forward. Don't try to block with your goblins unless you can swarm a target. Rely on your trolls for that, but make sure you have a goblin near them at all times. If they fail their Really Stupid roll, don't bother rerolling because Loner will more often than not prevent it from working. As I mentioned before, goblins don't make very good cages, because the corners of the cages can be pushed aside easily. The best idea in this case is to make a corridor of goblins one space apart and force your opponent to run through multiple tackle zones to get to your ball carrier, rather than blocking and moving into range. At the same time though, because goblins are Stunty, they don't care as much about opponents being next to them as it doesn't apply a penalty to their dodge rolls when they try to get away (they still have to roll to dodge away, but the Dodge skill and team rerolls helps with that).

The other way to get up the field is to trust in your trolls to have an accurate throw and your goblins to land properly. A bad pass here means the thrown goblin will likely end up prone and could lose the ball (if he had it, and there really isn't another good reason to throw a goblin unless you're trying to catch up to someone who got by you and into your side of the field with the ball). If the pass goes well though, you can easily pull a one turn touch down from your side of the field by running the ball up to a goblin next to a troll, having the troll throw that fresh goblin, and then running him into the end zone. However throwing goblins has a big risk as mentioned before. As long as you don't fumble, the goblin's going somewhere. Once they do, they have to roll to land. Assuming they land well, they can just go running for the end zone, usually leaving a cloud of players behind them. But occasionally the trolls won't be cooperative. Really Stupid can stop anything from happening, then Always Hungry can sometimes trigger and you lose your goblin as a mid game snack when you were going for that pass play for the touch down.

Wrap Up

So to sum up the goblin team as a whole, they're a bunch of filler with a few awesome units that are somewhat unrealiable. The only good units you can be sure you'll keep all game are the pogoer and your two trolls, and of those only the pogoer will perform consistently. But if you can wreck the enemy team in the first drive (or two, if you succeed with the bribes), you can win with a numbers advantage or on more equal footing (goblins versus skinks for example, with your trolls to match up against one or two remaining saurus). So be ruthless, be nasty, and win through unfair advantages.

[Feynt]

Yeah, the Fanatic needs to do all of his moves before you can do anything else, as far as I know. You can typically just waste a couple moves if you don't want to move anymore, but sometimes you can never get to where you wanted to go.

[PostAmnesia]

Everytime I tried to use my Fanatic I can't use any other player until I move his 3 steps, is that normal? one can't stop Fanatic until he make his 3 moves? or am I making something wrong?

[Street]

Instantly noticed one thing wrong here. The Fanatic does get SPP from casualties inflicted by blocking. You are correct that the looney and Bombardier do not get SPP from thier methods of hurting players. However the Bombardier of course can get SPP if he causes a casuality with a normal block, and the Looney gets SPP if an enemy blocks or blitzs him, gets attacker down and is then injuried from it.

Hope this helps