Nagash puppets!
They say theUndead are a wicked foe
to deal with on the fields of BloodBowl. Indeed they are. Them suckers
just keep
coming back, again and again.
If you are to coach the Undead, you
must focus your attention on your best assets. As with any team. But unlike
any
other team the Undead's greatest
asset is their Regeneration "skill", which allows them to pop back in to
existence
even when normal men would wither
and die away. All players, excluding the Ghouls, in the Undead team have
this
questionable "skill". I say it questionable,
because, you must understand this. The players themselves don't regenerate.
Their coach, meaning YOU, as a necromancer
will regenerate them. What this means is that you should wary yourself
for losing your head coach. Do NOT
argue. But enough of that.
The roaming rotters
The Undead team consists of five player types. The Mummies, Wights,
Ghouls, Zombies and Skeletons.
The Zombies and Skeletons are your linemen, where as your Wights and
Ghouls are your blitzers and
passers/catchers. Mummies with their superior strenght of 5 are your
blockers.
Everlasting decisions...
The Undead team has ONE major decision which will impact all of your
games. And this has to do with the
linemen in your team. For the Undead have two linemen types, the Skeletons
and Zombies. Whereas Skeletons
are more mobile with their movement of 5, they are more fragile with
their armour of 7. The Zombies on the other hand
move only 4, but have an armour of 8. Some people swear to the name
of Skeletons, and others to Zombies. I am a fan
of the lateral option. Why you may ask? Well, basically the difference
between these two is not that big, but very huge.
You can ask any Wood Elf or Skaven player if they'd like to have better
armour that 7. The 7 just doesn't cut it with a team
like Undead. Or not with the Undead I have played. In some other players
games, Zombies can suck. But you might even ask
why not use Skeletons, because they move 5. Ignore the armour? Don't!
You'll need it more than movement. Because the
Undead are so slow, you really don't need guys who move more. Most
of your TD's will propably be done using some
sort of box. And if you are using a box to score your opponent will,
of course, try to block your way. Usually they
will position themselves two squares from the front of your box, not
wanting to give you any space to move.
So if there is only two squares, sometimes three, to move to have assists
and tackle zones, why have players
who are fragile but more mobile? Exactly. You don't.
But keep in mind, that if you are playing in a league with more finesse
teams than teams of brute force, you
might want to take Skeletons instead of Zombies. Because they move
more, Hah! But on the general thought, always
take Zombies instead of Skeletons.
As for skills, when your Zombies gain their first skill, what the heck
do you give them? I usually give my two
first Zombies who gain skills, Dirty Player. Then I go with Block,
and when they hit their third skill, I'd go for Tackle.
For your average lineman, I usually try to do pairs of some sort of
players. Two guys with Block and Tackle
as their first two skills, other two with Block and some other skill,
preferably Guard if you are lucky enough to
throw doubles, but Leader is always a good choice also.
Just keep in mind, that in any league, Dodge skill will be, on the
long run, on many players, so it is good to
go for Tackle for your Zombies whenever in doubt.
I also like to have a "Wild Card" player.
These guys are included in all of my teams, and the reason of them
being Wild Cards, is the fact that they
usually have something unusual about their persona. Or what do YOU
think of a Zombie with Pass Block,
and Shadowing? They may not be the best skills, but they DO have their
use. Especially with Pass Block.
When you consider the fact that you have to have agility of 4, and
no tackle zones on you to have a better
chance than 6+ to intercept, then what's the point of giving it to
your Ghoul or Wight? Pass Block only allows you
to move three squares, and all you need to do is to make sure that
your Zombie isn't in a tackle zone.
Althought they DO dodge on 4+, which is 50% of the time...
Decisive action!
The matter of Wights is ridiculous. They are your average Blitzers,
with 6 movement, 3 strenght and agility,
and an armour of 8, which will help them a bit. But they take only
General skills. And this just sucks.
They are good for clearing the field, lending an assist when a Zombie
cannot, and function as
your all around policemen. They start with Block which gives them a
small edge in the beginning.
But their skill development is pretty tough. You really don't want
to give them Dirty Player as their
first or second skill. Not even on their third. So what to take? Barring
the lucky doubles roll, I'd say
that the best skills for them are Strip Ball, Dauntless, Tackle and
Frenzy. And not in that particular order.
Frenzy is a skill which is meaby not the best skill to take for a guy
with a strenght of 3, but with your
Zombies around lending a hand, your Wights can easily push anyone of
the field. At the kickoff,
you will notice how good it is. Nothing is more better that to get
one, or two guys out on your first
turn. If you ever get so lucky to roll either doubles you have a BIG
choice to make.
Consider the role of your Wight before choosing anything. If he is
your "basher", having Frenzy, meaby
Mighty Blow, or Piling On. Or if he works as your police, Guard.
A good skill is ALWAYS Dodge.
If you are even more lucky you will get a stat increase. Anything is
good on them. If you happen
to be SUPERLUCKY, you get agility. I cannot see anything better than
an AG 4 regenerating menace
to society. Except AG 5.
Just keep in mind that you Wights have many functions and propably the
best of them is the job of
police/basher. This way they can protect your more vulnerable team
players. The Ghouls.
The round thing...? 
As much as you might dislike scoring and winning games, on occasions
you must. There is NO better way to get in
to good close combat than to do a touchdown, and then bash the crap
out of your opponent on the
Line of Scrimmage! But, alas, to do this you must first succeed in
taking the small round thing to the
proper place. The opponent End Zone.
To accomplish in this you will need your Ghouls. The weasel-pack of
your team. These guys are
fragile with their armour of 7, but move a bit more than your average
Joe, 7. With their strenght of 3,
they make excellent catchers, outshone only by the elven catchers.
They start with Dodge, and take
Agility and General skills as they advance in skills. Since you can
get four of these babes, you
might want to form two pairs from them. The other one made exclusively
for scoring, and the
other one for defense. Because they do make great players in botha
areas.
What ever you decide to make of them, I'd advice to take Block as their
first skill, always.
It doesn't matter what position they play, Block, Dodge catcher with
a strenght of 3 is always a bit
tacky to come over.
To your scorer type a good choice after Block is Diving Tackle. This
skill gives them some
protection against the opposition Blitzers. Just make sure there is
at least one guy to support them,
so that they don't have to dive with 2 dies... After dive, or why not
before it, Side Step is
an exceedingly good chooice. Why not even JumpUp. This skill allows
you to do those
lightning fast blitz/handoff/move/pass/move/TD! plays. It isn't rare
for players to forget
that you have the skill. Sure Hands also is a beauty. It doesn't just
give you a better chance to
pickup, but it also foils your opponents dreams of Stripping the Ball
from you!
For your defenders, the second skill (remember, Block comes first!)
could be Tackle, or why not
Strip Ball. If you decide to take Strip Ball, which I strongly recommend,
this leaves your Wights
one skill more to use to their bash/police advance. Other good skills
are skills such as Sure Hands,
especially if you have taken Strip Ball. While blitzing, after they
drop the ball, you can pick the ball
up on 4+, and with Sure Hands, this usually even succeeds. Plus, this
skills negates your opponents
Strip Ball. Then, all you need to do, is to dodge away and form a safe
zone for your ball carrier.
If you ever manage to get ANY stat. increase, consider yourself really
lucky. A ghoul with a
strenght or agility of 4 is superb. If they move 8, their only superior
is the High Elven Lion Warrior!
When you manage to roll doubles, unless you have taken Side Step, I'd
consider Stand Firm.
If you have, well, Mighty Blow for defenders, and Guard for your catchers.
Guard, because who else
will stand on your ball carriers side, but his brethren?
There really isn't need to take Passing skills, because, when playing
the Undead, you will usually
start with at least three Re-Rolls, and the money you gain, will go
mostly for the purchase of new ones.
Mash, Bash and RRRummmble!!!
Ah, my everlasting favourites, the Mummies. These guys are just GRR-REAT!
They start with Mighty
Blow, which gives them a good chance of inflicting casualties more
than anyone, except Dirty Player(s)
in your team. With their strenght of 5, no-one stands on their way!
Their greatest minus is in their
movement, which is only 3, but this can be easily overcome. All you
need is Frenzy, and you can, while
at the same time making mincemeat of your opponent, move closer to
your soon-to-be victims.
All you need to do is to make sure that they cannot run away with a
clever use of your Zombies.
There really is no need to describe them anymore, so I'll just jump
to skill advances.
As their first skill, well, Block is good, and eventually it has to
be taken. But don't forget
Frenzy when picking your first skill. Yes, the blocks are a bit more
risky without Block,
but what it does it gives you a better rate of opponents knocked down,
because the simple fact
is, that if you don't knock them down, you don't do s**t! But when
it comes to their third skill, things,
again, tend to get tricky. They already have Mighty Blow, but with
Piling On, they'd get +5 to their
armour rolls, always. What this means is, that whenever they block,
they -at least - stun the guy.
This also leaves them down on the ground, vulnerable for enemy Dirty
Players. You just have to protect
them with your Zombies then. Also Guard is good, for it gives your
Zombies a good backup on the
Line of Scrimmage, and disables enemy Guards. The tricky part right
now is, that you have three skills
to choose from. PilingOn, Guard, and Tackle. Usually, one of my guys
takes Guard, the other one Tackle,
or PilingOn. PilingOn, just seems a bit better to me. Tackle, well,
it gives you a better chance to knock
people down, but with Frenzy, you have already a good chance to knock
them down. And with
PilingOn, you only rarely don't make your armour roll, thus increasing
the casualties inflicted.
Remember Mighty Blow.
Ever happen to roll doubles, there are three skills -again - to choose
from.
Dodge, JumpUp, and Diving Tackle.
Dodge is a good all-around, but the worst from these, becase, in the
long run, it will be
pretty much obsolote as many players will have Tackle.
But JumpUp. Oh baby! Combine this with PilingOn, and: "BANG!
Can you say Timbe-eer!?
BANG! Can you say Timbe-eer!? BANG! Can you..." and so
on, and so on...
Diving Tackle, well. I have no opinions. It is especially good for
defense...
But how do I combine this all to wreak havoc amongst my adversaries?
Sofar, what has been handled is mostly what to do with the players,
and how to develop them.
But what the heck do you with all that information, without knowledge?
All this rant is nothing,
if you don't know what to do with it.
So here comes the things what to do, in a nutshell.
When you are having a bash match, don't be afraid to leave your guys
on the open. You have
average armour, and regeneration. As stated in the beginning, you must
emphasize your greatest
strenght of all, the power of Regeneration. With this "skill", you
won't win games, but it will
make it a whole lot easier.
When playing a real game, with some ball handling in it, play using
the general rules which apply
to all teams. Keep a good eye on possible scorers, always put a TZ
on the ball, in case you fail
to pick it up. Keep your opponent rolling dice as much as possible,
especially ones which have
a good chance of failing, thus using up his re-rolls. Always do the
"safe" moves, which require little
- if none - dice rolls. Protect the ball, and your weaker members.
But most importantly, HAVE FUN!
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