Following a long, heads down, no-nonsense, let’s get this damned Chaos Codex finished session, I have finally returned to other things, not the least of which is Blood Bowl (hurrah!).

The good news from the Studio League is that on the whole the new Big Guy rules (previous Compendium) have been working out pretty well, as has Sigurd’s Injury Table. However, one thing that has become clear fairly quickly is that something needs to be done about Fouling and dirty players (and suggesting longer in the showers is only the start of it! – Ed).

This has mainly come about thanks to the efforts of one of the newer members of our Studio staff, who has learnt his Blood Bowl skills out there, in the real world as it were, rather than being a member of the Studio League from the start. What this has shown is that there was obviously a certain form of ‘peer group pressure’ which has stopped coaches making out on certain aspects of the rules in the previous Studio leagues, simply because they knew ‘it wasn’t the done thing’.

Unfortunately our new coach not being used to the rather more gentlemanly spirit in which we obviously play our games, has shown a distressing tendency to stick the boot in – i.e. Foul! – at any chance he gets. AND, he grabbed the Dirty Player skill as quickly as he could lay his bloodstained fingers on it! I ask you, what IS the sport of Blood Bowl coming to! (A rather horrific and violent sport, Jervis? – Ed)

Of course, none of this will be news to you guys. Judging by the comments I’ve seen on the mailing list about dirty players etc, but it proved rather a rude awakening for coaches here at the Studio, not least myself. But now the blinkers are off, and foulers everywhere, especially those Dirty Players, had just better watch out, oh yes! Or at least the y better had in the Studio league, where the following new rule will be taking effect just as soon as I get it pinned to the notice board! And before I get flamed to death by irate coaches with dozens of dirty players in their teams, I know this new rule is a harsh, knee-jerk reaction, but that’s they way I like ‘em! Ha ha ha ha (sound of evil laughter dwindling away into the distance).

Add this rule to the end of the rules on fouling. In order for it to work you will need a new counter, anything will do: bottle caps, small coins, a bunch of keys, half-eaten sandwich etc., but the best possible ‘I’ve Got My Eye On You’ marker (abbreviated to IGMEOY!) is a painted referee model. Once you’ve got a counter, put it beside the pitch when you set up. Only one is ever needed per match. Here’s how it works:

The first time a coach commits a Foul, he must hand the IGMEOY counter to the opposing coach, who should place it on their reroll track. All the time a coach has the counter on his reroll track, opposing players will be sent off for fouling if they roll anything other than a double, but not if they roll a double as per the standard rules! This radically increases the chances of being sent off, as they are under the watchful eye of the ref.

The coach is allowed to keep hold of the counter until his own team commits a Foul, at which point he must hand it over to his opponent, who can then place it on his reroll track. In addition, the counter must be returned to the side of the board (i.e. so that neither coach has it) when a half ends or a successful Illegal Procedure call is made against he coach with the counter. In the case of the Illegal Procedure call, the counter is lost in addition to any other effect the call has.

And while on the subject…

The way the rule is meant to work is that if a coach starts any ‘game mechanic’ before moving the down marker, then he can be called for Illegal Procedure. Basically the only thing you are allowed to do without being called is to think about things, as soon as you pick up a model, or roll a dice, or do something rules orientated, you can be called.

A player with Diving Tackle may throw a block at a Leaping player that lands in his tackle zone. The bit about ignoring Tackle Zones under the Leap skill is simply to make it cleat that no Dodge roll is required.

‘Hobgoblin Blood Bowl players are noted for their stupidity, although it has to be said that this isn’t a trait of the Hobgoblin race as a whole. In fact most other races in the Warhammer World consider Hobgoblins to be sneaky gits who will stab you in the back as soon as look at you, and will only fight if the odds are heavily stacked in their favor. This is actually rather an accurate character assessment, and as a result only the really stupid ones get conned into playing Blood Bowl! To reflect this, the coach of a team that includes any Hobgoblins must roll a D6 for each Hobgoblin player at the start of the match. On a roll of 2-6 the player can be used normally but on a roll of 1 the player has either arrived late because he’s forgotten about the match, or is having trouble tying up his bootlaces, or is doing something equally stupid, with the result that he may not be used during the first drive of the match.

Some concern has been raised about the fact that the new Big Guy rules may make life a little bit more difficult than it already is for Goblin and Halfling teams. This may well be true and if it is, I say ‘hurrah’, because that’s just the way I like it!

This may seem rather cruel but one thin I’ve purposely avoided doing with Blood Bowl is making all of the teams even. In fact I’d actually prefer it if Goblins and Halflings were LESS effective than they are at the present because this is the way they are portrayed in the Blood Bowl background. Basically, if you’re the coach of a stunty team, you should expect to lose ay games you play unless you happen to be up against another Stunty team. On the other hand, if you do win against a, erm… taller team, boy is your opponent going to try and keep in quiet!

The fact that this isn’t really the case yet shows that I simply haven’t gone far enough making life difficult for the little guys. But don’t worry; I’ll (we’ll?) get it right in the end…

Including Trolls as part of the lineup of a Goblin team does make a lot of sense, as there are close affiliations between the two races, so I’ll happily go along with John Parson’s revised Goblin teams.

Note: this means Trolls should come off the Big Guys team list.

I don’t agree with Treemen being included in Halfling teams, however, as the two races aren’t all that closely connected in the Warhammer World. I also think they should be kept out of the Wood Elf team. Although these races are closely linked, the Treemen are a sentient race in their own right who can choose to ally with the Wood Elves or not as they see fit.

The idea of allowing coaches to include players in their team, who have already accumulated SPPs, is rather a good one. However, to stop players exploiting this ability in a boring manner to, say, give all of the Chaos Warriors the Block skill, I’d suggest that each veteran you take for you team after the first is NOT allowed to take a skill you’ve already chosen for another veteran player in the team (i.e. all the vets have to have different skills).

On Jan 29^th, Aaron C. Thies worried that:

Well, having Andy Chambers as their head coach helped the Skaven a lot! But seriously, we’ve only really found that it is the expensive finesse teams that can suffer badly from high casualty rates. I think that reducing the cost of some of the players on these teams should quickly sort this out. Not only will it mean that the teams start with more players, but also that any loses will be easier to replace. This combines nicely with the new injury table from the previous Compendium.

I’ve seen it would appear that it’s the new ally rules and the IGMEOY rule (gotta love that abbreviation!) that are causing the most grief, at least to the BB list. Here at the Studio the biggest complaints I’ve had have been about the Really Stupid skill rules. Especially the fact that those poor old Trolls only get to move at the end of the turn. I have to admit I was rather pleased to hear people saying things like; ‘there’s hardly any point having a Troll on the team’, etc, But in the end I relented and there is a slightly toned version of the Really Stupid skill below which we’ll be using from now on.

As for the IGMEOY rule, although it’s brutal, I have to say I like it just the way it is, and although it is causing some frustration to the more murderous coaches that are around, I’m keeping it just the way it is in the Studio league, so there!

The use of allies is clearly a far more thorny problem, and although we’ve not had much trouble with them in the Studio league, they obviously have potential for rather, erm, cheesy uses, as several of you have pointed out. I’ve therefore come up with a couple of suggested changes, which I’d be interested to hear your comments on. Giving credit where it’s due I should say that these have been heavily influenced by stuff sent to the list by James Jamieson and Chet Zeshonski, both of whom have come up with some really sensible ideas, which I’ve cheerfully stolen for my own use!

1. Only Linemen, Big Guys and ‘secret weapon’ star players (see below) may be hired as allies.
2. Every Ally causes the loss of Fan Factor. There are two exceptions:

• Big Guys do NOT cause a loss in Fan Factor, because most fans love to see such players on the field.
• Chaos teams do not lose Fan Factor for allies.

1. You are not allowed to buy allies when you create a team. Every team must play at least one game with a starting lineup in order to ‘prove’ themselves before they can purchase any allies for the team.
2. If you’re using the new ally rules then you can’t have Star Players, except for stars that use ‘secret weapons’ (i.e. Fanatic, Bombardier, Chainsaw, Pogo Stick, Death-Roller, Assassin). Any secret weapon hired as an ally costs FF and may result in the loss of rerolls as normal. No team may have more than one secret weapon.
3. Finally, please note that a D6 must be rolled for each and every ally in a team. You lose a reroll for each dice that comes up with a ‘1’. If you don’t have enough rerolls to lose, then the opposing team gains rerolls instead. There are no exceptions!

These guys no longer have to move last. However, if they fail a Bonehead test or Stupidity roll, then it causes a turnover!

Finally, a rules clarification about the use of skills in general. You never have to use a skill just because the player’s got it. However, unless a coach says otherwise it’s assumed a skill will be used and if you don’t want to use a skill you must say so before rolling the dice for anything that the skill may effect. Hope that clears up any misunderstandings.

Here’s something that was submitted by Tom Merrigan from Oz of ‘A Fistful of Gunfights’, Gang War 1 fame.

The rules that follow allow players from all the different races to purchase secret weapons. If you are using these rules then you are not allowed to purchase any of the Star Players that have secret weapons. Players can take secret weapons instead of gaining a skill or a stat increase, but only when:

• The coach rolls a double for their Star Player roll AND
• If the coach has enough money to pay for a secret weapon

(Goblin teams are so desperate that they can take a secret weapon if the coach doesn’t roll a double on the Star Player roll.)

Each team can only ever have up to two players with secret weapons on the team at any one time (Goblins are extremely dirty and desperate so they can have up to four players with secret weapons). If you ever have more than two players with secret weapons then you will have to start sacking players until you only have two players with secret weapons on your team roster.

Note: you can’t simply get rid of a player’s secret weapon. Once a player owns a secret weapon they become attached to it and wouldn’t give it up for all the gold pieces in the Old World.

Only the real desperate and dirty would ever stoop so low as to use a secret weapon. To represent this, secret weapons may only be purchased for specific types f players. The table summarizes which players from each race can use a secret weapon.

Stink Bomb: The stink bomb is treated in the same way as a normal bomb with the following exception. Players in the square where the stink bomb ends up, and all adjacent squares, fall over coughing and choking. Lie them face up on the field but do not make an Armor roll for them. Players falling over in this way do not cause a turnover unless one of the players was holding the ball, in which case they drop it.

Spike: Spikes are simple but effective weapons used by almost all races. The most common form of spike is a piece of old metal that the player has found and sharpened. A player with a spike adds +1 to all the armor and injury rolls thy make. Note, you do not add +1 to the roll when determining whether a player is Badly Hurt, Seriously Injured or Dead.