Big Guys

by Jervis Johnson

These rules are designed to sort out some of the problems with the way that Big Guys (Ogres, Trolls, Rat Ogres, etc,.) work in Blood Bowl. The current rules are OK as far as they go, but putting Big Guys on star player cards was a fudge really, and over time I've become less than happy with using the Star Player cards as a method of getting Big Guys into the game. After all, according to the background you can have entire teams of Big Guys (the Oldheim Ogres being the most notable example), and I now feel that they should really be treated as races in their own right, with a team list just like the other races get, and that they should be incorporated into other teams using something like the mixed race team rules that appeared in the Citadel Journal. This would leave the Star Player cards to represent unique one-off Star Players.

Linked to the above is one very important question (to me, at least), which is: Why, in the background, have teams of Big Guys always done so badly? After all, no team I can think of could take on even 11 Morg's (let alone 16!), but the Oldheim Ogres aren't one of the really great teams. How could these things happen when Star Players of these races are so good?

The answer is, I think, that Star Players like Morg are truly exceptional players that lack a highly debilitating quirk or failing found in all other players of that race. Therefore, when writing up non-star player Big Guys, they should be given a really bad negative skill which crocks them enough to make taking a whole team of them as attractive as taking a team of Snotlings.

But enough 'why', lets get on to 'how'! The following rules are very rough at the moment, more of a discussion document than anything else. They are, of course, strictly optional, and should not be used without an opponent's consent.

When using the Big Guy rules, you are only allowed to include one of each Star Player in your team. You couldn't have more than one Morg, for example. On the other hand there is no upper limit on the total number of Star Players allowed in the team, just so long as they are all different. In addition, ignore the bit on the card which tells you which teams the Star Player will play for; this is replaced by the new mixed race team rules.

The following team list is really an amalgam, with each line representing what would normally be a team. However, in most leagues a coach simply isn't going to be able to field a team of Big Guys, because they are not going to be able to afford to buy 11 players and stick within budget! Therefore the Big Guys in the following list will nearly always be taken as allies for other teams, rather than fielded as a team in their own right.

League Commissioners who desire it should feel free to allow coaches to field Big Guy teams. Single race Big Guy teams must be chosen from a single line on the list below (i.e. all Ogres, or all Minotaurs, etc.) and can't take any allied players themselves apart from Star Players of the same race (so you could include Count Luthor Von Drakenborg on a team of Vampires, for example). By the way, note that all Big Guys are limited to a maximum qty of 12., which means that you can't have more than a 12 man Big Guy squad.

MINOTAUR TEAM

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills
0-12	Minotaurs	110,000	5	5	2	8	Horns, Mighty Blow, Thick Skull, Wild Animal*, Always Hungry*
Re-Roll Counter: 80,000 gp

OGRE TEAM

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills
0-12	Ogres	120,000	5	5	2	9	Mighty Blow, Thick Skull, Bone-Head*
Re-Roll Counter: 80,000 gp

TREEMAN TEAM

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills
0-12	Treemen	110,000	2	6	1	10	Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, Thick Skull, Take Root*
Re-Roll Counter: 80,000 gp

Bull Centaurs, Trolls and Rat Ogres are not allowed to start a team of their own, instead they are included in the team lists of as follows...

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills
0-2	Bull Centaurs	130,000	6	4	2	9	Sprint, Sure Feet, Thick Skull

GOBLINS

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills
0-2	Trolls	100,000	4	5	1	9	Regenerate, Mighty Blow, Really Stupid*, Always Hungry*

SKAVEN

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills
0-2	Rat Ogres	130,000	6	5	3	8	Mighty Blow, Prehensile Tail, Wild Animal*,

* Negative Skills (see below)

BIG GUY TEAM LIMITS

Skaven and Chaos Dwarf teams are not allowed to take allied Big Guys, so you can't include allied Ogres or Minotaurs in a Skaven team, for example. Finally, the maximum number of allied Big Guys allowed for any team is 2 in total. This means that the only type of team allowed to include more than 2 Big Guys in its line-up is a team of Big Guys (i.e an Ogre team, or a Treeman team etc).

Bone-Head:

Roll a D6 before taking an action for a player with this skill. On a roll of 1 they are standing around trying to remember what it is they're meant to be doing. As a consequence of this, the team suffers a Turnover...

Really Stupid:

This is treated in exactly the same way as the Bone-Head skill, except that the player can't do anything on a roll of 1-3 instead of only a '1' unless there is a friendly player in an adjacent square who is not either a Bone-Head or Really Stupid too (i.e. if there's a sneaky Goblin next to the Troll, treat the Troll as a Bone-Headed rather than really stupid!)...

Wild Animal:

A player with this skill tends to get a bit, erm, carried away during a match, and rather lets his natural enthusiasm overcome him. Wild animals must take their actions first of all during a turn; if you take an action with wild animal after having moved a player that is not a Wild Animal, then your opponent call call you for illegal procedure exactly as if you had forgotten to move the turn marker. In addition you must roll a D6 before taking an action with a Wild Animal. On a roll of '1' he goes berserk. Berserk players immediately drop the ball if they have it, which causes a turnover at the *end* of their action. The berserk player will then attempt to block the nearest player friend or foe - attacking them as if he were making a frenzied blitz move (i.e. he keeps blocking until the victim goes down or he runs out of movement). The berserk player will always go for an opposing player if there's a choice, but otherwise decide randomly who he goes for. The berserk move DOES count as the team's blitz action, with the eception that it can be made even if another Wild Animal from the team has already gone beserk and blitzed. Berserk wild animals do have to go for it in order to try and knock their victim over!

Always Hungry:

The player is always ravenously hungry - and what's more he'll eat absolutely anything! Should a player with this skill ever use the Throw Team-Mate skill, roll a D6 after he picks the player to be thrown up, but before he throws them. On a roll of 1 he attempts to eat the unfortunate player! Roll the D6 again, a second 1 means that he successfully scoffs the other player down, with obviously fatal results for the latter. On a roll of 2-6 the other player squirms free and should be placed prone in a randomly selected adjacent square (if the square is occupied then the original occupant is pushed back and knocked over).

Take Root:

Roll a D6 for the player before the match starts. On a roll of 1-3 the player is slumbering in a wood somewhere and misses the match all together!

Most Big Guys are very slow learners and so must earn double the SPP's to gain a Star Player Roll. For example, a rookie Big Guy needs to earn 11 SPP's to become 'experienced' and gains his first roll.

All Big Guys are limited to taking Strength and General skills only.

In addition, Big Guys are not allowed to use doubles on star player rolls to pick skills from categories not normally allowed to them. Instead a Big Guy can use a double on a star player roll to do one of the following:

1. Add +1 to his strength

2. Add +1 to his armour value

3. Remove any one skill he doesn't want any more!

Note that strength and armour values still can't be improved by more than 2 points over their starting value, or to greater than 10 no matter what.

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