Hi, and thanks for picking up the seventeenth issue of the Grotty Little Newspaper!

Once again, our staff have been working hard behind the scenes to bring you all of the best stories and content from across the world of FUMBBL and beyond. It wouldn't be right not to headline our exclusive interview with the main man himself; I heartily recommend that (after first finishing my drivel) you dive straight into the GLN's latest illuminating catch-up with Christer. What makes BigC tick, and what does the future hold for everyone's favourite BB website?

Our sit down with the big cheese isn't all we've got for you this time, and whilst it would be slightly unprofessional to pick favourites, it's lovely to see an overview of the British based White Isle League and their struggle against the Oceanic Southern Wastes, the URN. We're always keen to shed any light we can on the superb user content and leagues on site, and we also have a look at the new season of the innovative DLE, the Draft League Europe. Three groups there worth your while looking up on your next trip to the [L]eague forum.

As ever, the GLN has come together organically, and this time we have some really good content with which to stretch your little grey cells. Some of the site's finest have come together to talk through an interesting in-game situation, and it's a fine exercise in Blood Bowling strategy to unpick their thoughts and see if you would have the same plan in the same position. We have a tactics quiz and even a crossword to keep you going over those long lunch breaks or other convenient non-FUMBBL time. Grab a pen and get stuck in! There is also some fantastic fluff in this issue, especially for those with a love of all things Goblin. So - something for everyone!

The GLN is not a one man band. Every coach that has given up some precious free time is a hero, and their contribution to the GLN's rich tapestry and history is much appreciated. If you see any of these fine fellows in IRC, the forum or (more likely) slumped over the bar in a pub, give them a hearty clap on the back. A special mention for Kam, who weaves some sort of magic to stitch together a load of words and images into magical computer mumbo jumbo so the thing looks neat and pretty. I'd burn him as a witch, but he's just too useful!

Any ideas? Contributions? Feedback? Abuse? Well, all but the last one are welcome, please join us in the GLN forum.

Enjoy!

Purplegoo (da Editor).

GLN: Hi Christer. Firstly, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed here. I know people are interested in what you have to say, so it's great that you could find the time. I've asked around for a bit of inspiration on the questions so the majority don't come from me, though some are my own. I've decided to break the interview down into 3 sections - Christer the man, Christer the Blood Bowl player, and Christer the FUMBBL creator.

Let's get started!

GLN: I've decided to keep this section quite short, just a brief insight into life. So, how's life these days?

Christer: Hi, life's certainly keeping me busy these days but I have nothing much to complain about. Things are pretty good! :) I'm living in a 2 bedroom rental apartment in Stockholm with my girlfriend and two cats.

GLN: Nice. It looks like a beautiful city and I'd love to visit someday. What is a typical Christer day?

Christer: Very briefly, it's mostly: Wake up, go to work, work (developing data warehouse software for the financial industry), come home, dinner, check in on FUMBBL, deal with critical issues if any, decide if I'm alert enough to do some dev work and if not, play some random game (currently Diablo 3) or watch a TV show.

GLN: That sounds intensive, though you should know your dedication to FUMBBL is appreciated. What other games do you like to play in your spare time?

Christer: I already mentioned Diablo 3, which is something I've been playing on and off since it was released. In general, I'm a fan of Blizzard games and have been playing WoW relatively actively for quite some time (since release). Beyond Blizzard games, I play some more casual type games on the Playstation (the LEGO and Ratchet & Clank franchises). I've also been known to play some shooters (Halo, Destiny, and am looking forward to trying The Division when it's released).

Here are a number of questions related to Blood Bowl, though not to FUMBBL specifically.

GLN: Right, time to talk Blood Bowl! If you could change one rule in Blood bowl, what would it be and why?

Christer: The Team Value formula. I understand that it's designed to be easy to calculate on pen and paper, but it's a very crude formula that's not very accurate. With a more complex TV formula, a truly perpetual league like FUMBBL would function better with fewer problems. For example, some power skill combinations (such as Claw, Piling On, Mighty Blow) could be balanced by a TV modifier rather than a change in the skills themselves.

GLN: Taking it further then, if you had ultimate power over Blood Bowl which direction would you like to take it?

Christer: Much like the intent of the LRBs, I'd try to push it further towards allowing perpetual leagues to function better. The LRB6 / CRP ruleset does a reasonable job doing just that, but I figure it could do with more iteration to accomplish a stable environment.

GLN: Indeed. A lot more is possible in a digital environment than would be feasible for a tabletop game. Changing tack now, what would you say is your favourite race, team and player?

Christer: I've always been partial to Khemri as a race. It's not the fact that they're a relatively bashy team, but the theme really appeals to me. My favourite team is probably my "Forgotten Kings". They're a copy of my real life team which I spent a lot of time researching. The theme of them isn't very original (Egyptian deities), but I took the time to research the mythology and looked up how to write their names in hieratics (an evolution of hieroglyphics, designed to be written with a brush). That was a lot of fun for me, and the resulting team will always be special to me. As for a favourite player, that's very difficult... My play style tends to sacrifice players quite a lot which means I don't really get attached to the players themselves. I don't even think I've ever had a Legend level player on any of my teams! :)

GLN: Haha. Me neither, funnily enough. When researching questions for this interview one that came up a few times was:

When did you last play tabletop Blood Bowl and how often do you play?

Christer: Oh, that's a tough one... I don't really play tabletop these days. The last time I played was probably on the NAF World Cup way back in 2007.

GLN: Coming up for 9 years! That's a good while. I'm hoping to break out the lead and cardboard next week :)

This is a kiss / marry / kill like question: If you had to buff one race, nerf one race and disband one race (remove from the game entirely) which would you choose and why?

Christer: The buff race would be easy: Khemri. Probably super biased, but I feel the latest Khemri change was misguided. Prior to the change Khemri were, in my opinion, too strong short term and too weak long-term. The changes they made didn't really affect the short term of the team much, but utterly annihilated the high-end gameplay of them. I think that's a major mistake and it would have been better to nerf the low TV play while buffing the development of the team.

The nerf part is harder. I'd perhaps tone down the kill stack access of the Chaos Pact team. Not entirely sure how, though... Perhaps reintroduce the double roll requirement for mutations, or possibly require ST 4 for Piling On.

As for disbanding, that's even harder. Maybe the Ogre team. It's essentially a big guy team, but nerfed to the point of being silly. I figure it's in need of a redesign more than removal though... Another candidate (for similar reasons) would be Vampires.

GLN: Interesting, interesting. And finally for this section the most important question. Do you T16 foul?

Christer: Hah, yes! :) Mostly as a retaliation when I lose the game. :)

This section will contain FUMBBL-specific questions, relating to both the general usage of the site and it's history, and the site's ongoing development. It's the largest section, and understandably the one people have most questions about.

GLN: Right, let's kick off this section with simple but divisive question. Who do you think is the greatest coach you have seen on FUMBBL?

Christer: There are many really strong coaches on the site, and there are many people who are truly nice people. I hesitate to name people though as I'm sure I'd forget to mention some of the people who would deserve a shoutout.

GLN: That's exactly the sort of answer I was expecting. :P One of the most common questions people asked was 'How many man hours do you spend running FUMBBL?'

Christer: I don't count. Some weeks I do very little, while other weeks I spend a lot of hours fixing things. The staff team deal with most of the day-to-day issues with disconnections and all sorts of support tasks, and I'm humbled by their dedication to the site. I do all of the site maintenance myself though (hardware upgrades, software upgrades, restarting the game servers, etc.) but those tasks tend to be super intensive for a limited period of time (as in, 20-30 hours over a weekend). Over the years, I've spent thousands of hours on the development and maintenance of the site.

GLN: Another common question, and one I'm sure you've heard many times before: Why don't you play more games on FUMBBL?

Christer: Mostly because I proritise my FUMBBL time to the forums, support / maintenance and development. In a way, I also feel like I need to keep somewhat of a distance in order to be objective. Some of the things I have to deal with require me to make decisions when coaches disagree with ruling of a staff member. If I was super involved and had just played a game against someone who crushed my team, it would be hard to stay objective.

GLN: What motivates you to give so much time and money to FUMBBL given that you aren't a regular player?

Christer: FUMBBL evolved to what it is today partly because I want to keep up to date with the technology that is needed to run a site like this. It's a way for me to test various technologies in practice rather than just read about them. For example, VLANs, VPNs and SSL and Code signing certificates which are all things I've implemented on the site and wouldn't have if I wasn't running FUMBBL.

In addition to this, the community of FUMBBL is truly incredible. While there are harsh tones every now and again, I figure the people here are super friendly in general and I'm very happy how people step up and do things for the betterment of the community itself.

It's also a way for me to play around with the development aspect and trying out various technologies from a code perspective. I do work as a developer as my day job, but having a project like FUMBBL to work on in my free time is very different (no deadlines, no estimates). However strange it may sound, it's actually pretty meditative to just focus on a specific problem or feature and not have to worry about all sorts of other time / budget constraints.

GLN: It certainly is a great community we have here. What is the one thing that you would like to change about FUMBBL?

Christer: The core that I built the site on (PostNuke). It's served me pretty well over the years, but it's showing its age and there are things I actively dislike about it. For example, there is a fairly immediate problem that I need to deal with relatively soon; the database abstraction layer it uses (PHP's mysql module) is deprecated and has been for years. There are newer abstraction layers that are supported, but the problem is that the core system FUMBBL uses is based on the old one. Changing to the new one is likely to cause issues. At some point, I'll end up doing the migration though, but replacing the whole core system is unlikely to happen. It's simply too much work for very little benefit, and it would cause problems for users. Changing to another platform would, for example, force me to switch to another forum module which is another headache I am not sure I want to deal with.

GLN: What's the biggest technical challenge you've had to overcome while creating FUMBBL?

Christer: There are no huge challenges I can think of to be honest. I've certainly spent a large chunk of time on certain things. Migrating the database to new hardware and new versions of the database was certainly time-consuming and took a lot of effort over a couple of weeks. And it's not only hardware that can be challenging. Coming up with a method to deal with round-robin schedules ended up being very very hard. To begin with, it felt like a relatively simple problem to solve, but it turns out it's part of a class of problems that's called "NP complete". These are mathematically hard to solve and I ended up reading math papers to come up with a solution I was happy with. I find this kind of problem solving very interesting though, and I don't mind spending time on them.

GLN: Where do you see the future of FUMBBL?

Christer: From the start, I never set out to make the site a large community and league. Back in 2003, I never thought it would become this large and it still amazes me that so many people play here every day. For the future, I hope to give more control to the coaches. The league changes are one aspect of that, and I've also been thinking of ways to allow things like tracking tabletop leagues on the site. The tournament part of the site could certainly help out tabletop commissioners and having the site do things like skill rolls and team tracking would ensure less "mistakes". ;)

At some point, I'm also hoping that we can move away from a Java client to HTML5. This would simplify things for users and in theory allow playing on a tablet.

GLN: Taking that a step further, if there were no financial or technical obstacles, what would you like to see FUMBBL become?

Christer: As for the financial aspect, it would be great to have enough stable financial support to proactively replace hardware over time. With 4 servers running the site, it would be great to be able to replace one server per year to reduce the risk of hardware degradation. Another thing I'd enjoy would be to have multiple ISPs connected so that there was a backup in case of downtime. Also, having redundant hardware to even further reduce downtime would be interesting to set up and implement.

In terms of evolving FUMBBL itself into other things, I haven't really put that much thought into it. One possibility would be to support games other than Blood Bowl.

GLN: You mentioned the new [L]eague changes a little while ago. How long currently have the new [L]eague changes taken to implement and how much further is there to go?

Christer: I spent a couple of years thinking about how to implement it from a technical perspective, and testing various things. The implementation itself is also pretty hard to get done because it's tricky to come up with an easy way to make it work from the user perspective. The current partial implementation that's available on the site is too complicated and confusing for users and I want to simplify that somehow.

As for how much is left, it's likely going to be an ongoing process over a long time. There are so many things that are possible to expand on once all of the core functionality is in place.

GLN: Are you pleased with the changes so far and how they've been received?

Christer: Overall, I'm happy with the basic technical structure of it, and how it's implemented. There are some aspects I need to rethink a bit and I absolutely need to figure out a way to make it easier for league commissioners and participating coaches. It's super confusing right now, and I'm certain there is a way to make it easier (although I don't have a solution in mind right now).

As with a lot of things, the reception is hard to evaluate. If I implement something that works reasonably well, there's an initial "oh, that's cool" response followed by silence. It's actually pretty hard to know if it's working fine or not used at all! :)

In an ideal word, I would be running leagues on my own, but I simply don't have time to do that.

GLN: Thanks for that insight Christer. Coming full circle now back to the first question (which you cleverly evaded): Which coach from times gone by do you think you / the site misses the most?

Christer: From my perspective, I wish Mr-Klipp was still around. He helped me out with development early on, and helped FUMBBL get ready for "general use" faster than I would have been able to on my own.

As for "the site", I'm not sure to be honest. There's such great diversity among coaches I can't really tell who they'd "vote" for.

In a more general sense, I personally wish the IRC chat had more traffic. IRC is such a great way to chat with people and I really think it strengthens the community. Another thing I may try (again) at some point is setting up a voice chat, as that's something I happily join myself for other games.

GLN: Thanks for that Christer, and thanks for your time. I'm sure people will enjoy reading your responses.

And that's all for now, thanks for reading another great issue of the GLN.

Blood Bowl 2 (BB2) has now been out for some time now. As FUMBBLers, we have seen various reactions; from coaches not wanting to touch it to others playing it for the majority of their time. We can't deny that it is bringing new players to the game, which can only be a good thing over time.

I bought it when it was on sale and thought it would be interesting to write a review from a FUMBBLer's angle. This is not a comparison by any means!

Brief Review and Description of some Main Features

On first glance, we see that, aesthetically, BB2 is quite nice. There are glitches occasionally, but on the whole, this part is quite a decent experience. It would be nice if the crowds were race specific other than Humans all the time.

I have played more online players than AI, as it can be quite dull for experienced players. However, for new coaches it really does go through a step by step account of what to do and how to play the game, which is useful.

The interface is average and gets easier with time. There have been occasions when mistakes have been made due to this and lost me the game! It doesn't always make tackle-zones clear due to the camera angle, etc. however, this can be changed. A new update also allows you to see skills players have above the model, which is an improvement from having to hover the mouse over players.

As part of your team, you can upgrade your stadium to give various effects. For example, both teams can start with a Wizard, or it can nullify certain kick-off events. This is an interesting one and adds a change to the game.

Team creation is interesting. Player names are automatically generated, and fluff around the team is limited. The limited number of races is also a bit of a let down. The Bretonnian roster is an interesting addition, but the add-on teams (currently Woodies and Lizzies) at a cost is, unfortionately, a money making exercise. My guess is that more will come. People are buying them though as I have played some pretty high TV Woodies and Lizzies recently! The roster changes have minimal impact, such as the Human Catcher change (AV8), as it's contained within the game rather than the rest of the Blood Bowl world.

The quality of opposition is varied. I would class myself as an average FUMBBL coach. On BB2 I am above average. Some of the games are pretty dull due to ease of beating the opponent. The lack of ability to chat in-game is also a shame. Concessions are less regular than before, but I believe that coaches who have had enough of BB2 have now left. It's beginning to filter out. There are still lots to discover in this game, but that's it in a very small nutshell.

Summary

BB2 is a fun representation of the game, however, I play it with a certain disappointment from within. It could be so much more. It saddens me that the drive behind it is more financial gain than pleasing the fans, however I understand that it needs to make money. I'll still play it occasionally but most of my BB time is still spent on FUMBBL.

Comparison to FUMBBL

There is no comparison. Nowhere near, in my opinion. FUMBBL offers way more, and all for free.

Imagine you're playing as Lizzies and face this situation:

The Saurus in the yellow box only has Block, and your re-roll is already used. Would you still be tempted to make him dodge, say, to mark the Dorf blitzer?

I play rather conservatively, yet I would. Am I out of my mind? Not at all. Allow me to explain what I like to call an odd paradox.

Firstly, nothing can prevent Dorfs from scoring. Pressuring them signals that you want them to score on their next turn, after which you could attempt a 2-turn TD before the half ends. This strategy might not be a probable move, but if you don't try to make something happen on the BB field, nothing will happen.

Secondly, letting the Saurus stand there also contains a risk; it is in fact riskier than dodging, even if the Saurus has Block and neither Blocker has Mighty Blow. According to elyoukey's calculator (http://www.elyoukey.com/sac/), the chance of getting knocked down after two 2D blocks is a little over 80 %, while failing a Dodge on a 5+ is near 66 %. In fractions and reversing the odds, this means the Saurus has 1 / 5 chance to stay up after two hits, while he has 1 / 2 chance to succeed in dodging. If we consider cases with Mighty Blow and a Saurus without Block, the difference is more dramatic.

Now, be honest - did you really think that dodging with a Saurus gave you better odds than letting it take two hits?

*****

Suppose your AG1 Saurus has Dodge. You might want him to dodge before he gets Break Tackle. How do you feel about the odds?

Suprisingly, they're quite good: 56 % or 5 / 9, i.e. 1 / 3 + (2 / 3 x 1 / 3 ). Even more suprisingly, they're the same as getting a PUSH on a 2D block without a RR. Which means that a One-Turn Touch Down (OTTD) that requires pushbacks is often less probable than dodging with a Saurus with Dodge!

Blood Bowl offers many similar situations where we make intuitive, but erroneous, estimates. Only cold calculation can help us see through these paradoxes. The only other viable alternative is to embrace a heroic conception of probability.

The Rule of Five is real. You might be a vocal supporter, a steadfast opponent, or you might not even know what it is. Regardless, it does exist, and you're hurting your game by not understanding it. So, what exactly is the Rule of Five?

The Rule of Five is a team building philosophy that states, in order to maximise efficiency, you should focus development on five key players and treat everyone else as expendable. That seems pretty extreme, but the rule derives logically from the rules of Blood Bowl itself. When receiving the kickoff, you are guaranteed a chance to do the following things (let's ignore Blitz!): make 3 blocks on the line of scrimmage, make 1 blitz and attempt a pickup with a player. In order to do those things you need (you guessed it) 5 players. When defending, no matter what formation you choose (except for extreme deep OTTD type defences), you can only protect 5 players from a blitz. This is where the "standard" 3-3-5 formation comes from. Given these two facts, it seems logical to make these 5 players the same on both sides of the ball. Now you have 5 guys you need, and 6 guys you don't. Boom, Rule of Five.

Now the anti-5 crowd will counter that this only describes 2 turns out of 32, and it's crazy to build your entire team around 6 % of the game. They're right of course... But, those two turns are the only two you can count on in the entire game. Every other situation has almost infinite permutations, and you can't plan for those. The only two things you're guaranteed are one turn kicking off and one turn receiving the kick. To ignore that is to put your team at a disadvantage. Additionally, once you start facing Claw, Mighty Blow and Piling On (CPOMB), exposing a key player to even one unnecessary turn of blocks can be fatal. The Rule of Five isn't the be-all and end-all of team building, but it's something every team should keep in mind.

So, how does the Rule of Five effect each roster? Let's take a look.

The Rule of Five Truthers

Dark Elf, High Elf, Pro Elf - If you play one these rosters you must, at the very least, keep the Rule of Five in mind. Your positionals are expensive and fragile. Putting even one in range of a Tackle, Mighty Blow Piling On-ner (TPOMBer) on Turn 1 can mean the difference between winning and losing. So how does that work in practice? Think long and hard before adding a sixth positional. Four Blitzers and a Witch Elf is probably enough. Runners and Assassins are barely better than a Lineman, so leave them at home. The second Witch adds a lot less than the first and puts a valuable Blitzer at risk. For Pro and High flavours, you need to decide if a Thrower is even worth his cost over a Lineman, or if you'd rather have a third Catcher in safety. Running all four Catchers plus a Thrower means you are either putting an expensive AV7 piece or a crucial Blitzer at risk. It also means you need to think long and hard at over-developing Linemen. What does a +Stat Lineman really add? You can't keep everyone protected.

The Rule of Two

Wood Elves - Let's face it, Wood Elves are a two man squad, and everyone else is just for show. For them, the Rule of Five is more of an afterthought. You need to decide if you want a Thrower (I like them) and how many Catchers you need. One adds a one-turn threat and a mobile assist. Two can stay safely within your 5. Three is overkill. With Wood Elves, I'd probably just run the one catcher and "reserve" a positional slot for a Guard or +Stat Lineman. Being able to protect a Lineman makes Wood Elves one of the few teams where the Rule of Five would suggest taking +Stats on Linemen.

The Rule of Four plus One

Skaven - Gutter Runners are the sneaky little fuel that keeps the Skaven offensive engine running. With AV7, they must be protected at all costs. That leaves one more "slot" in your 5 if you're keeping it strict. Early, this might be a Thrower if you like them, but later it will likely be a key Blitzer. +Stat and Claw Blitzers are key players for Skaven and they need to be protected. In sum, Skaven players shouldn't get attached to both Blitzers, because one is going to get POMBed sooner rather than later.

Khemri - They get to 4 + 1 in a totally different manner, but the results are similar. Khemri needs to keep their Blitz- and Thro-Ras safe, If you're deploying all four, you can keep a developed Tomb Guardian back as well to keep him safe.

The Rule of Five plus Strength

Undead, Necromantic - These are very similar teams with very similar goals. Necro need their Wolves and Wights to win, and Undead need their Wights and a Ghoul or two. Both have tough, slow, high armour players in the Mummy and Flesh Golem. Given their strength and low speed, it's probably a bad idea to put these guys in the back row. So for these squads, the Rule of Five will help determine how many Ghouls you want to run. Necro wants no more than one as you can't protect more than that and Undead want no more than three for the same reason.

The Rule of Blood

Vampires - These teams may want five Vamps, or they may want three or four. Regardless, you need to keep these guys safely in the back row. If you run fewer than five, you can be a little more liberal taking stats on Thralls as you can treat them like mini Vamps and keep them safe.

The Rule of Man

Amazon, Human, Norse, Slann - The three human rosters play very differently from Elf rosters as you cant rely on a few stars and a mob of scrubs to get the job done. The stars don't get that good and the scrubs aren't good enough. On these rosters you need a lot of flexibility to win, so the Rule of Five doesn't really apply. That being said, you can use some of the tenets to aid your defensive setups. Slann aren't human, but with up to eight positionals, they play similarly in many ways.

The Non-Rule of Fivers

Chaos, Dwarf, Nurgle, Chaos Dwarf, Lizardmen, Chaos Pact, Orc - These teams are all going to have a variety of players that contribute different skills and can't really run the stars and scrubs philosophy that the Rule of Five suggests, and their toughness means they don't really need to.

The Rule of Stunty

Goblins, Halfling, Underworld, Ogre - Stunty squads probably won't develop too many stars you can rely on. Underworld are a little different in that their six positionals are stars by comparison. These squads don't follow the Rule exactly, but like the "Human" teams, the tenets can be useful, especially if start to rely on a few more developed guys.

The Build

Chaos have always been my favorite team in Blood Bowl, throughout the editions. Under the current ruleset they certainly live up to the description of plowing down the middle of the pitch and killing everything in their wake.

I find that team building is a crucial part of Blood Bowl. In the Black Box, Team Value (TV) management determines what opponents you will draw, as well as Inducements. It is often useful for Chaos teams to decline stat increases and doubles to keep TV lean. Often kill-stack can be much more useful than Dodge or Leader, for example.

As a personal preference, I take strength increases, though a true "min-maxer" would likely turn down all stat increases and doubles. I also find one or two AG increases can greatly help with ball handling.

Taking a Minotaur is a personal choice, but one that I find particularly unwise due to the TV increase, unreliability, and the low AV of the Minotaur.

I have discussed the optimal number of kill-stack players with a number of coaches. I think the majority believe four kill-stack players to be the best. Four players can be reasonably protected. On offence, three can be used on the line of scrimmage blocks while the fourth blitzes. As a theme, I try to take as many kill-stack players as possible on the WMD's in the Box. However, that build is far from ideal. A more competitive build would lack doubles or stat increases, barring one AG increase, and probably be limited to four kill-stack players. My goal with WMDs has always been to be able to field ten kill-stack players, and a Dirty Player. A more optimal build would have a number of unskilled Beastmen to use as fodder and meat-shields, to protect the valuable players.

As with most teams, Chaos need Dirty Players. Kill-stack is effective at removing players, but with enough assists, a foul will automatically break armour, and Dirty Player will add one to the injury roll. Dirty players also make opposing coaches think before using Piling On.

Finally, it is my experience that a majority of the teams at high team value in the Black Box are bashers. The AV8 of Beastmen, and the vast number of kill-stack players mean that a bench is a necessity. While I have encountered successful eleven man Chaos teams at high team value, it is my experience that a few lucky hits, and unlucky knockout recovery rolls can unnecessarily skew a game. At 60 k each, a few Beastmen on the bench can make the difference in a heavy hitting game.

The Game Plan

Plan A for kill-stack built, high team value Chaos in the Black Box is generally "Kill them all, and let Nuffle sort them out." Under this approach, if the opposing team is removed from the pitch, it is an easy matter to walk the ball into the end zone on turn eight.

In practice, Nuffle is often not so kind. Dealing with other bashers, Chaos can often be on the receiving end of the bash. Because Chaos players all have average agility, and the Beastmen have good movement, Plan B for Chaos is often "Pretend we're Elves." Setting up a hand-off, and pass play can allow Chaos to score in two turns. Chaos are on par with the other average agility teams. Especially with agility increases and Extra Arms, Chaos can be competitive even when being out-bashed.

Playing Against High Team Value Chaos in the Black Box

When playing other teams versus high team value Chaos, in the Black Box, I try to limit the number of blocks the Chaos team makes. Sometimes keeping all men prone and accepting one Foul is better than taking 4 kill-stack blocks. Also setting up deep can limit the Chaos to hitting only the line of scrimmage. I'm not a fan of this approach though, as it doesn't work well with Blitz! kickoff results, or do much in the way of pressuring the Chaos.

As a bit of generic advice, I suggest playing to the strength of your team, and when possible, gang-foul kill-stack players.

Complaints

Chaos have been accused of being one of the most feared and hated teams at high TV in the Black Box. The most common complaints that I've heard fall into three categories. The first complaint is that a kill-stack build will destroy the opponents team. The second often heard complaint is the Chaos roster lacks diversity, because many teams field only Beastmen and Chaos Warriors. The third complaint is that there are too many Chaos teams in the Black Box at high team values.

There are a number of strategies used to win a Blood Bowl match. The best strategies allow the winning coach to manage the clock, and make sure he has more touchdowns at the end of the game. With Chaos, I find player removal to be the most effective way to make this happen. Because Chaos have access to kill-stack without requiring doubles, they are easy to build, and efficient for team value management. More player removal results in a greater chance of injuries to the opposing team. While casualties are not the goal of my particular strategy, it certainly does happen frequently. For example, I don't re-roll a knockout, as I'd rather have the player off of the pitch, with the last turn of the game being the exception. Player removal is a strategy used by all truly bashy teams. In the current rule set, kill-stack is the most efficient way to remove players. This is certainly a competitive attitude, and would likely be shunned in a tabletop setting. But for a perpetual online league, like the Black Box, high team value Chaos are one of the more competitive teams, and this attitude is encouraged by the Black Box rule set.

The simplicity of the Chaos roster may be dull to many. Many coaches elect not to use a Minotaur, who is only useful as a Blitzer, and like all Big Guys, he is unreliable. He often can cause game-changing turnovers. The Minotaur's ability to take Claw as a first skill makes him somewhat useful as a player remover at low TV, but his bloat in team value does not match his usefulness to high team value Chaos team. Coaches that like a diverse roster should simply avoid coaching Chaos. Nurgle are arguably better than Chaos at surviving at high team value in the Black Box, due to regeneration. Nurgle have one of the best Big Guys, plus three other positions. Nurgle are a nice substitution if a coach wants to play Chaos, but don't enjoy having only two positions on the team. However; with that said, I have never drawn a team and been bored simply because of the opposing team build. I think the lack of diversity argument is often another way to complain about kill-stack, or Chaos being over-represented at high team value in the Black Box.

Because high team value Chaos are efficient at player removal, it is only natural that they are often coached, due to the competitive environment of the Black Box. Wood Elves have a greater win ratio than Chaos, but it is unlikely that there would be many complaints if a great number of high team value Wood Elves began competing in the Black Box. I think everyone tries to avoid things that bring them discomfort. Losing players that took games to build brings discomfort to most coaches. Also, drawing multiple games against the same team is frustrating to the losing coach, or even annoying for the winning coach, who may find the matches tedious. As one of the more competitive teams at high team value, Chaos will continue to be one of the more highly represented teams in the Black Box.

About the Author

He's a ten foot tall Beastman who showers in vodka and feeds his baby shrimp scampi.

Sneaky Git or not to Sneaky Git? That is the Question.

Let's assume you want to use fouling as a valid tactic, as suggested by my article in the GLN 16. Let's assume that you can decide if you want to bolt Sneaky Git onto any of your players. It costs 20 k of TV if that player has agility access, 30 k if it has not. I will take you through the analysis of when it is worth it, and when it is not. I will go into the details and the numbers in this article. If that is for you, then continue reading. If you are not interested in the calculations, then jump to the very end, and read the conclusion only. The result is simple and robust.

Valuation Method

This is the mathematical part of the article. But if you want to reap the fun, then get this straight first. If you foul, then there is a chance your player will be sent off. Yes, even with Sneaky Git. This means that you lose TV on average with every foul you commit. If the chance of a player being sent off is small, or the value of the player committing the foul is small, then the expected loss is small. In a basic scenario, where you foul with an unskilled player with a worth of 70 TV, you lose 20 k on average, as the chance of being sent off is about 30 %.

Sneaky Git Effect

Let me be blunt and straight. Sneaky Git does not help you to foul more effectively. Sneaky Git helps you to mitigate the loss upon fouling. So there is very little else to consider beyond the expected loss. Let's look at a chart which compares the chance of successful fouling with and without Sneaky Git depending on the target's AV (accounting for assists):

 0:   31%   31% 
 1:   31%   31% 
 2:   31%   28% 
 3:   31%   28% 
 4:   31%   26% 
 5:   31%   26% 
 6:   31%  24% 
 7:   31%   24% 
 8:   31%   21% 
 9:   31%   21% 

So Sneaky Git is more effective as you increase the armour of the prone player (so as the effectiveness of the foul decreases). Sneaky Git has no effect on breaking armour, or on the injury roll. Let's take a few realistic examples where I calculate the expected loss of TV upon fouling.

Example 1 (Norse Lineman)

You need to roll at least 7 to break the armour, your player has a cost of 50 k without Sneaky Git, or 80 k with Sneaky Git. The expected loss is either 50 k * 31 % or 80 k * 21 %. You lose about 15 k in TV without Sneaky Git, and about 17 k with Sneaky Git. Conclusion: Do not take Sneaky Git on a Norse / Amazon / Human Lineman.

Example 2 (Goblin Lineman)

You need to roll at least 7 to break the armour, your player has a cost of 40 k without Sneaky Git, or 60 k with Sneaky Git. The expected loss is either 40 k * 31 % or 60 k * 21 %. You lose about 12 k in TV without Sneaky Git, and about 13 k with Sneaky Git. Conclusion: Do not take Sneaky Git on a Goblin Lineman.

Example 3 (Dark Elf Lineman)

You need to roll at least 7 to break the armour, your player has a cost of 70 k without Sneaky Git, or 90 k with Sneaky Git. The expected loss is either 70 k * 31 % or 90 k * 21 %. You lose about 21 k in TV without Sneaky Git, and about 19 k with Sneaky Git. Conclusion: If you plan to do about 10 fouls with the same Dark Elf Lineman in a single game on average, then you break even. But hell, dont take Sneaky Git on a Dark Elf Lineman.

What About Assists?

If you increase the number of assists, then Sneaky Git gets worse, so the argument that it gets better is invalid. Actually, Dirty Player combos badly with Sneaky Git, as do assists. So the argument that Dirty Player helps is also invalid!

What About the Extreme Case?

Even if you would foul with a Dark Elf Lineman against an AV9 player all day long, on all 16 turns, the expected profit is still marginal. You need to do at least about 5 fouls on average with that player to break even.

Conclusion

Do not EVER take Sneaky Git under the current ruleset.

P.S. If your league runs the option of banned Sneaky Gits going to the KO box, then it changes the maths, and you should absolutely take the skill.

Have You Used Your Wizard Yet?

Da Wizzard... everywun noes ee'z da best indyoosment dat munny can buy. But not everywun noes da best way to use 'im. So I, Shigglez, 'ed coach of da finest teem of Goblinz ever seen, is gunna tell yoo sum seekrettz abowt how...

When Should I Hire a Wizard?

If yoo'z got 150 k of cash to spend, an' yoo'z not coaching Gobboz (dey needz it fer uvver fings... ask der refz), den yoo should be hiring a Wizzard. Dere is nuffin else as good yoo'z gunna get fer dat cash.

When Should I use the Wizard?

Dis wun in't an eezy kwestshun to arnsa. If da uvver teem is gonna score an' yoo can recova da ball wen it goes looose, then use da Wizzard. If yoo'z got a chance to score but dere's playaz in da way, use da Wizzard. If dere's a big ol' bounty on da pitch, like a wardansa, a wolf, or a klawpomma, den use da Wizzard da furst chance yoo get!

What Spell Should I get him to Cast?

I bashed sum Gobboz togevver an' did da maffs. A Fireball is gunna hit wun of every too playas unda it, da litening bolt is gunna is gunna 'it moar often unless itz da sooperbowl final an' yoo really needz it to. So: da bolt is da wun to go for, unless yoo'z playin' a bashy teems - dem short beerdy gitz is a good eksampul - an' yoo can get fiyv or moar of dem under a big Fireball.

Anything Else I Should Know?

'Avin' a Wizzard is a big fing in da mind of da uvver coach. 'Ee won't wanna bunch 'is teem up, in case yoo 'it 'em wiv a fireball. 'Ee won't wanna run forward too kwik 'cos den yoo can jus' Bolt da ball an' nikk it bakk. So don't always use da Wizzard as erly as yoo can... waitin' a wile may give yoo betta opportoonitiez. Of cors, yoo don't wanna wayt so long yoo ferget yoo'z got a Wizzard...

Also: despite 'ow much yoo pleed, da wizzard cannot be used on playas off da pitch. So wen dat spawny wun-tern gutta-runna HIDEZ IN DA DUGOUT FER MOST OF DA GAME, yoo'z not gunna be able to 'it 'im wiv da Wizzard.

The turn counter pings and your four minutes begin. Do you go for the safe play or try something riskier? Are there obvious moves, or should you sit back and come up with a plan?

We all start in the same position and yet we end up making very different moves. There are some that are clearly better, but the game is so complex in terms of the number of permutations that there are other moves where 'best' is hard to define. I wanted to understand what went through the head of a coach as they played out a turn. Do people approach turns in a similar way and select different moves, or are they looking at them completely differently?

I took a turn from a game and asked three coaches to put themselves on the clock in coming up with a plan and then to write down their thoughts. Firstly, here are things at the start of the High Elf turn three, Dark Elves having received:

Where b is Block, d is Dodge, g is Guard, l is Loner, 3 is AG 3, 87 is MA 8 AV7 and shacc is Sure Hands and Accurate.

It is decision time! The Dark Elf Runner / ball carrier has been left exposed and close to the side line. 3 plays come immediately to mind:

1. Can I chain surf the ball carrier?
2. Blitzing the ball carrier
3. Shore up the defensive line

Option 1 is very attractive if it can be done. If I can push players into one another and end up with the Runner in the crowd, I'd have a good chance of regaining the ball after it gets thrown back in. I can see ways to chain-push the runner next to the sideline but I can't see a realistic away to complete the play and get him into the crowd so unfortunately option 1 is no good (as far as I can see).

Option 2 has a chance of popping the ball lose when the Runner gets hit (or if the Dump Off Pass doesn't work out for him). There are some plusses and minuses to this option in this particular position:

a) There is a Lineman with Guard next to the runner covering the key square, however that Lineman could be blocked away with a one dice block from my Catcher (who has the Block skill)stood by him, so that's not too bad

b) The ball carrier has Dump Off which is a real pain in positions like this. However, he also has a reduced agility of only 3 which means the pass will fail on a dice roll of 1-3, since the Runner will also be in the tackle-zone of the High Elf making the blitz. The pass will be failed on a 1-4 if my Catcher gets at least a push back when he blocks the Lineman with Guard, since he will have an extra tackle-zone on the Runner too. Instead, if the Runner takes the hit, there will be a 50 % chance of knocking him down (without a re-roll) since he doesn't have Block or Dodge (as a separate note here I think it's a mistake to keep the AG 3 Runner in the team - he should be fired. AG is essential to the ball carrier)

c) There are a lot of Dark Elf players close by, so the ball could easily spill to a safe place

d) The Runner is close to the sideline, so there is the chance of the ball spilling into the crowd which could be a great result for the High Elves like in option 1 above

Option 3 would tighten the screw and potentially set up a better chance to win the ball on a later turn. If going for this option, I'd blitz the Witch Elf in the most advanced position with a player with Block and an assist to get maximum chance of knocking her down and strengthening the defence near the sideline. Targeting high value but vulnerable players is also generally a good choice.

It is a matter of judgement between options 2 and 3 and this comes down to coach temperament as much as anything. Are you willing to risk more to have a chance to gain more? I don't see that there is a right or wrong answer. I think I'd be tempted to try the hit on the ball carrier and see how my luck was. I am not convinced I am going to be able to defend this drive if I play passively and either way I am hoping there will be sufficient pressure for the Dark Elves to have to rush the score if they can, in which case I'll get a chance to score back before half time and still have the advantage in the second half when I receive.

Having decided to hit the Runner, here is how I'd do it:

1. Stand up my prone Catcher and Thrower (needed so the Dark Elf Blitzers don't provide assists later on)

2. Block the AV7 Blitzer with my Catcher (who has an assist). If I get double skulls / both down I will re-roll to try avoid the turnover. If successful I now have more Dark Elf players in tackle-zones, so the catch from the Dump Off is harder

3. My prone Blitzer nearest the half way line will now get up, dodge (2+ with the Dodge skill) and move next to the Blitzer who is 2 squares behind the Runner - now the catch is harder for him too

4. My Catcher will block the Guard Lineman (1 dice block and I have the Block skill). If I still have a re-roll I will re-roll if get a Skull. If my Catcher can move in after the block he will to put a tackle-zone on the Runner

5. My second Blitzer will blitz the Runner. This will be a 1 dice block. Hopefully he is now in 2 tackle-zones, so his Dump Off with AG 3 is 5+, and as all his team mates are in tackle zones the catch will be on a 3+. If the Runner doesn't risk the Dump Off and I get a POW result, I will push him back next to the sideline in the hope of the ball going into the crowd

From here the remaining moves depend on what happens now with the ball. With a little luck it could end up somewhere I could get it and I'll then provide as much cover to the player that retrieves it as possible. If the ball remains in Dark Elf hands I'll use my remaining moves to try to put as much pressure as possible on by moving my last players into Dark Elf tackle-zones. Hopefully my opponent will suffer a turnover from the dice he has to roll or will feel the pressure to score next turn, giving me plenty of time for the return score before half time.

My simple plan would be to put as many tackle-zones on the Dark Elves as possible with a minimum of dodges and GFIs:

1. Dodge the prone Blitzer near the half way line out so that he can put the Dodge Blitzer in a tackle-zone, and also another tackle-zone on the Lineman two squares below that Blitzer

2. Two dice block by the unskilled Catcher on the MA8 Blitzer

3. Stand up the Blodge Catcher

4. Risk the one die block on the Guard Lineman

5. Go for the one die blitz on the ball carrier by the other Blitzer

6. Depending on the Dump Off one of the Linemen may be free to gather up the ball

Bit like shuffling the deck or just smashing all the balls in pool!

OK, so I decided not to analyse this too much and tried to decide in 2 minutes, which is what I usually play in, to give a more realistic picture of how I would play the turn. I am a quick player and, on reflection, would benefit from spending more time to decide what to do!

Here we go...

1. Move the second lowest Lineman to underneath the Witch Elf to give numbers if something goes wrong!
2. Stand up the Thrower, I forget to stand my downed players first sometimes!

3. Stand up the Blitzer nearest the halfway line

4. Stand up the Catcher next to the Witch Elf

5. Move the lowest Lineman to underneath the Lineman with Dodge to get some back up in case they push further next turn

6. One die block the Guard Lineman and hope not to roll a Skull. RR if so. If push, POW / push or POW, follow up. If both down... Well he stays! This will take the Guard away from the ball carrier and allow me to get a one die blitz on him

7. One die blitz the ball carrier with the nearby Blitzer from bottom right adjacent tile and hope for both down, POW or POW / push. If push, POW / push or POW, follow up. This to me is worth it for a 50 % chance to rid the ball carrier of the ball

8. Two dice block the MA8 Blitzer with the Catcher. If push, POW / push or POW, follow up. If both down or Skull, RR. Pushing the back support players further away from the ball will help my numbers further up the field

9. Move the Lineman hopefully freed by this block to the right of the Witch Elf with a 'go for it'. Save the 'Go for It' till the end as it's not a necessity

10. End Turn!

This would leave it with a possible surfed High Elf Blitzer but I think the one dice blocks above are worth the calculated risk considering both attackers have Blodge and the defenders have nothing.

So, interestingly, each coach decided to go for the ball, albeit in slightly different ways. Personally, I would have seen the risk of losing from this approach as a little too high and would have tried to turn the screw by boxing my opponent in. But that's the beauty of the game. What would you have done?

Using CRP teams and the FUMBBL client, your opponent has 11 players, you have X number of players. Let's assume you can setup all players as you wish, including the opposing players. After the setup, it is your turn. The objective is to eliminate all players from the pitch in a single turn with only block actions. Assuming you get the dice you wish for, what is the lowest possible X?"

Click on any number or empty square to show the answer.

I was never into Blood Bowl before the month of September. In fact, I was never particularly fond of Warhammer or fantasy in general. I'm not even a fan of things like Lord of the Rings honestly; I've always been more of a Star Trek and Sci-Fi kind of guy

That said, coming from a background in UFO defence, I have come to love games with a tactical edge and a tough but fair RNG that keeps things interesting. Whether you're a huge tabletop player of things like Mordheim and Warhammer, or you're just someone who has dipped their toes into the tactics realm with games like Frozen Synapse and XCOM; Blood Bowl has something for you.

It's got a wonderful community full of people who put together emblems for one another or create their own achievements and leagues. It's full of people who talk strategy, offer mentorship, post blogs, write strategy guides and playbooks and donate money to support the community and the game they love. This is part of what made FUMBBL so appealing to me coming from a brief stint on Cyanide's Blood Bowl.

That said, there's some things that aren't so wonderful. The learning curve, the deaths, the awful mistakes you're going to make, the misclicks, failed re-rolls, the bad luck that happens so frequently that a God , Nuffle, has been made up to justify the insanely awful things that can happen to a person. It can be a tough pill to swallow but take it from me, a newbie, that you can get through it, enjoy the game and suffer with a smile on your face like everyone else here on FUMBBL.

So how do you cope with the pain? Here's some tips I've learned to trust after my 45+ games here:

1) Follow the Order of Operations

Blood Bowl has its own version of PEMDAS. You need move your open guys first, you roll 2D blocks second, you cover the ball before picking it up and you minimise the chance of suffering a turnover, or worse, losing the ball.

Now, this can be ignored if you've got a plan, and even ludicrous plans can be fun, but just be ready for them to fail. It's going to happen. Play it safe to save yourself frustration or have fun making those other plays.

2) Never end up in the Crowd with the Ball

Sure, all rules in Blood Bowl are made to be broken at opportune moments, but I swear, every time I think putting my ball carrier on the edge of the field will give me a tactical advantage and there's no way he'll end up dead or in an awful position... He does! Don't let it happen to you. Whereas the order of operations can be broken this rule is as close to concrete as it gets in my book.

3) Block to get out of Blocks; don't Dodge unless you Must

I play Skaven for the most part and they tend to be dodgy little guys. When my guys are all marked up and it's my turn I used to think I could easily dodge out with my 2 + or 3 + rolls and Dodge on most of my guys. Unfortunately, that's just not true. Nuffle won't let that happen and as you continue to dodge out with more players to offer assists and make a play, you'll continue to see them drop quickly. Dodge might give you a free re-roll but once you're rolling 5-6 dice it's easy for a couple of them come up wrong. Instead, try to push the others back! Remember that when blocking with a 1D roll it's a 1 / 3 chance of you going down and if you have Block it becomes 1 / 6. This means pushing them back to free up your guys is not only just as safe in many cases but it also means you could potentially down an enemy player and if you have a 2D block, have a great chance at knocking them over or just away, allowing your other player to move freely. Strategic blocking is the best way to escape. Only dodge when necessary or strategically viable to your plans.

4) Make a Plan, Even if it isn't that Smart

Playing this game and just countering the opponent might feel like the natural thing to do, especially when going against a higher level player, but it certainly isn't as fun and often will cause you to lose. Having a plan makes each player feel meaningful. Thinking about where you want to run the ball through, how you're going to punch it open and which of your guys is going to be carrying it helps make it not only more exciting but keeps your head in the game. It gives you a place to move your pieces rather than just dragging them up the field and, when your plan is executed and works, you'll feel like a tactical genius! A real coach!

5) Try to Play at or Above your Skill Level

Sure, beating a Super Star coach as a Rookie is going to be very difficult, but just remember that they might have more experience with the game. Since this isn't a twitch shooter or something with muscle memory, you can potentially beat anyone you're faced up against. Find a team near your TV and jump in, make a plan and try to win. This rule is something I'm trying to stick to myself as I am a fan of having a positive win / loss ratio but something I've had to realise, and you should to, is most people with a positive ratio have played this game for hundreds of hours. They've done hundreds or thousands of games on here and if they're new and have something like 22 / 0 / 0 then they've probably done tabletop. Play to have fun and get better, don't play to keep your stats up as much as you might want to.

Try to keep these tips in mind and I think you'll have a much more enjoyable experience here. You'll probably still get frustrated and that's fine, there's always ways to cope with it. I suggest only playing the game when you're not in a bad mood for starters. If I've had a long day I'd play something a little more casual or less time consuming. Putter around on an old game you like or watch TV and have a drink. If you've got an itch for Blood Bowl but aren't ready to have a couple of your favourite characters potentially punched in then watch replays, watch live matches and participate! You can cheer, boo and scream at the players and it makes the experience that much more fun. Heck, contribute to GLN or make a newbie guide like I am with this one. Talking about BB on the forums, reading the amazing strategy guides in the help section and watching live games is not only fun but makes you a better player. You can also customise your team emblem, bio and player images. Make this team yours! Make it fun as you watch your favorite band members and movie stars level up or get destroyed.

Blood Bowl is a hell of a game and whether you're into Warhammer or just looking for a new tactics game, it's got something for everyone. You're going to be learning this one for a long time, many people with thousands of games still are, and that's what makes it great. It's a hobby as much as a video game and that's something I'm just now starting to realise as a newbie myself. I find that exciting and, hopefully, you do as well. See ya on the pitch!

A tribute to the FUMBBL custom league

This article decribes the short but blazing history of Draft league Europe (DLE) and explains it's unique features. Some aspects may be interesting to [L]eague comissioners, as I believe the DLE receipe has helped the league's success. Before we start, let me credit the people who have contributed significantly: b4nshee (league page and badges), Ryanfitz (who drew inspiration from the FDL), mister__joshua (for manually adjusting player skills, which is imperative for the league to function), Arcayn (managing the league), Valen and Matthueycamo (co-comissioners) and The_Murker (graphics). I also credit hereby all the people that I have unforgivably forgotten to mention. Thank you, too!

What is DLE?

DLE is a franchise based league based in the Old World ranging from Reikland, to Bretonnia, to Estalia, to Tilea and all the way up to Kislev.

In Season 1, the league started out with 18 franchises. All cities from accross the Warhammer world submitted applications to host a franchise. One by one, the 18 founding owners selected their home base and the DLE was born. Each team was named after the city or province where they settled and given a nickname. The league gained popularity quickly and the league management decided it was time to grow. There was a long term target to get up to 32 teams (to match the NFL regular season and playoff structure), but that seemed to be a distant possibility until potential expansion owners lined up at the gates. Those great folks made it possible that the long term target was reached as early as Season 2!

Unique Features

As the name suggests, the DLE is a draft league. The main talent comes via a draft. According to Wreckage this is a 'communist' system, as it favours the weak! During every draft, the worst team selects first, and the previous champion last. There are no Inducements in DLE whatsoever, so people are not punished, but are encouraged to select players with unique skill combinations, giving greatly increased strategic variety. The second aspect of the league allowing no inducements is that all teams can run 16-man rosters all of the time. Fully stacked rosters means coaches can carry specialist players for specific roles, plus it makes sure that the second half of the games are always relevant and interesting. Rarely is a team forced to put less than 11 players on the pitch.

As a sidenote, I would recommend league comissioners consider the promotion of 16 man rosters, as this became one of the main positive features of the DLE, keeping most games interesting throughout.

All of the games have a friendly atmosphere; I can't remember any timeouts, concessions or forfeits. I think this speaks volumes for the DLE community, and is a big achievement.

Transition to 32

Rather than describing the Season 1, I'll jump straight into Season 2, which is already underway. Many features will be very familiar to people that follow the NFL. There are two conferences, comprisng 16 teams. In each conference, there are four divisions of 4 teams. A regular season schedule is 14 games. Each team plays twice against their division rivals, four games against a division from it's own conference, and four games against a division from the other conference. The matching of divisions is rotated on a seasonal basis, so 3 by 4 will result in a twelve season rotational structure. e.g. It will take twelve seasons before a team once again plays against teams from the same 'other' division.

The playoffs comprise twelve teams, 6 from each conference. The 4 divisional winners advance to the playoffs, as well as the two non division winners with the best regular season record from each conference. The tie breakers are:

1 - Points
2 - Head to head result
3 - Points against divisional rivals
4 - Points against conference rivals
5 - Opponent's points
6 - Net TDs + Net CAS in all games
7- Net TDs + Net CAS in conference games
8 - Coin toss

Teams are assigned a rank from 1-6 (best to worst qualifiers) in each conference, according to record. If a team plays against a team with lower rank in the playoffs, then the team has 'home field advantage'.

Home field advantage means that the 'home team' is allowed to determine all coin-toss related choices, so can decide when to receive and when to kick. This could be very helpful in an overtime situation!

Playoff Schedule

Like in the NFL, the first round is 'Wild Card' round, where the No. 3 ranked team plays against the No. 6 ranked team and the No.4 ranked team plays against the No.5 ranked team in each conference. So the 2 best division winners get a bye, while the rest battle.

In the second round, the remaining four teams play in each conference. As in the NFL, the team with the best rank is scheduled against the team with the worst rank in this round.

The third round is the 'Conference Championship' round where the remaining two teams in each conference play-off.

The fourth round is the grand final, which is also called the 'SuperBowl'. The SuperBowl is the final game of the season, and the winner is the winner of the league.

Conclusion

I hope that this was an interesting read, and that you may all find your own league with which you can be obsessed. I have found mine! If you are interested in Joining the DLE, then please PM Meanandugl, and you can join the waiting list. There is a decent chance that you can join us in Season 3 by taking over a team after Season 2 has ended.

Back in those early days of 2003, things were a lot different. We were using SkiJunkie's client, we had none of your fancy icons... We played with lettered symbols! Ahhh, heady days.

One of the earliest FUMBBL conceptions was [L]eague play, and two of FUMBBL's giants started way back then. The first, and I believe also the oldest on FUMBBL (correct me if I'm wrong), is the Southern Wastes League (SWL). It was set-up in 2004 for coaches in the Australasia area of the world <cough - G'day Sheila!> . Then, 18 months later (in 2006) the White Isle League (WIL ) was born. Early on, it was purely for UK coaches, but that soon opened up to all Europeans.

These two protagonists regularly sparred over who was best league with a war of words. Unfortunately, little could be done about these spats; we could not settle scores with some form of violence called Blood Bowl! It took eleven years before SWL and WIL decided to conduct a formal tourney to see just who was the best of the best.

So, what concept should be used, and how to go about conducting a mini tourney? Well it was summer 2513 (2013) and England were whooping the Aussies at cricket, a series more commonly known as the ASHES. For those unaware, the Ashes are the remains of cricket bails held in an urn. An idea was forming. The SWL commish was approached, and Tomay and the rest of the SWL boys were as keen as we were. They wanted to get stuck into us Pommies / Euro 'scum' ASAP. We had to beat them off with a stick!

So what would the SWL and WIL fight over, what would they be willing to put their beloved teams in the line of fire to win? Actually - Nothing! Can't think of a better reason other than whooping the opposition and to have those all exclusive bragging rights!

But for fluff reasons, SWL & WIL needed something to contest, so we stole the idea of the Ashes, and Tomay came up with the URN title. This URN contains the remains of one of the very first Blood Bowl balls, and all of the races hold these remains in high regard. The honour for playing for them is ridiculously high. So these remains / games are sometimes referred to as the SCRAPS.

A mutual time to play for the URN had to be decided, and the only convenient time was just after Christmas, when both leagues were idle. So, in 2014 the first URN tourney between SWL & WIL was put into motion. The teams were selected purely by winners of the Premierships that year, or very high runners-up. Five teams from each league were randomly matched against one another. No draws were allowed, so OT ensured we would have a winner! It turned into a very close run thing, after 4 games it was even with 2 wins each, it all came down to that fifth and final game. Who was going to get that first URN trophy? Nuffle smiled, and the SWL walked away the bragging rights and a 3-2 series win. The WIL were left tantalisingly close and frustrated at being pipped at the post!

As the seasons progressed through 2014, the selected teams tried to pimp themselves in readiness for URN II. At the eleventh hour, two of the WIL's chosen committed hara-kiri, decimated themselves and effectively ruled themselves out of URN contention.

It's now January 2015, and the URN II kicks off. Once again the 5 best teams (available) from each league compete, and are randomly drawn against each other. This time there was no OT, if there was a series draw, then the SWL would retain the URN as current holders.

The author was actually involved in URN II and ironically / spookily tied against SWL commish - Tomay. Unfortunately my Undead didn't do so well, but we did get a keepsake. The tourney again was particularly close, though my early loss did hamstring us a bit, the guys rallied around and carved out two draws. The WIL needed to win the last two games! Serious pressure; and so it was, the SWL wrapped up their second URN trophy in game 4, eventually winning the series 2-0, sailing back home to the raucous chant of '2-0, 2-0, 2-0!' The gauntlet was thrown down, and the WIL had to win URN III.

015 was a rather long year for the WIL commish, his beloved Undead were demoted, snuffing out chances of revenge in the next URN. He waited, watched and nurtured his chosen for URN III (this included a small pep talk about not adhering to total annihilation prior to the forthcoming URN, with a particular emphasis of hitting Azure with a big stick so he understood! :)). Fortunately, the pep talk worked, managing to suffer no major casualties. The smack talk was now also cutting in with jibes between the two camps, notably from the SWL as they still had the URN and we were yet to even get our mitts on it!

So January 2016 approaches, the URN contenders are finalised, the draw made and the third instalment of the URN was about to begin!

I'll now hand over to Spubbbba, who has put together a worthy script of URN III and the 10 teams and 5 mini (ish) match reports

GO WIL!!
As always - Keep it WIL!

Prez,
WIL Commish

Grumpsh's Error 404 afterlife not found versus Mateuszzzzzz's White Isle dogs

In comparison to some teams in this in the competition, both teams were relative newcomers to their respective leagues, with both of them only gaining promotion to the top division this year. Since then they had had a significant impact, winning or finishing 2nd in every remaining season. Error 404 were the SWL Champions in Q3 and the White Isle Dogs are the reigning WIL champions.

The great strength of the Dogs was the mass Blodge and Sidestep across the board, which made it hard for bash teams to pin them down. They also had sufficient mobility to utilise their own Tackle and Diving Tackle when facing other agile teams. The last two seasons in the Prem had not been without cost, and they went into the game with only 12 players, several of them rookies or low skilled.

Error 404 had regularly topped the SWL Prem bashing stats, averaging 5 CAS per game in some seasons. Going into the game with 15 players, they could survive any damage the Elves could dish out and foul with abandon. Despite a lack of Tackle, their single player boasting that skill was star Werewolf Huge Axeman, who had won numerous CAS and blocking awards in the SWL Prem 2015 season. 2 DT ghouls would also help to constrain the Elven agility. Whilst Error 404 would find it tough to take the elves down, a good amount of MB and DP gave them a good chance of ensuring that any elves that did go down may not get back up again.

Match

Error 404 won the toss and elected to receive, hoping to cause some damage on their drive and score late. However the devious Elves were able to anticipate the kick off, blitzing the slow-footed Necros and grab the ball. Axeman showed his quality and was able to pop the ball loose but the Ghoul Superstar ghoulhardy was unable to claim it back. The rest of the team did punish the Dog players for their impudence, causing an injury and knock out.

With Error 404 closing in and another player ending up in the casualty box, the Dogs decided to take this gift from Nuffle and scored in T3. Receiving for a 2nd time, Error 404 made sure to the ball was safely protected before proceeding to shamble up the pitch, Injuring another Elf in the process. The Dogs tried their best to stop them but were powerless against the inexorable tide of rotten players. The 2 Blood Wine Slanneshi cultists the Dogs had brought to the game proved their worth with all knocked out Elves coming back. Their reputation for sacrificing players who convalesced too long in the KO box doing as much to motivate them as the restoring property of Bloodweiser's newly released product for the Elven market. With a T8 score it looked like the game would be tied at the half way stage. The Dogs were not ready to give up yet though and pulled off an impressive 1 turn touchdown and with a mere 9 players.

Going into the 2nd half with a 2-1 lead and receiving, things were looking good for the Dogs. They retrieved the ball and rushed players into the opposing half, reasoning a quick score would leave the Necromantics struggling to catch up. A brilliant defence by the 404 quickly shut down and curtailed the elves. one by one the potential receivers disappeared under a tide of already dead bodies. Things came into a head when upcoming Werewolf Jazzie Batesman took out the ball carrier Tweed Water Spaniel VI and Flesh Golem Kev Mitchinson grabbed the ball. By then there were too few elves left to challenge and Error 404 stalled out the rest of the game to secure the draw.

Despite it being a draw, the massive CAS difference gave the SWL team a moral victory and the damage taken made it an extra challenge for the Dogs when they came to defend their title next season. As predicted, Huge Axeman was the star of the game adding another 3 casualties to his already impressive total, passing 50 in this game.

Grod's Technically Minded versus Stonetroll's HarsH North

HarsH North are the WIL Prem's heavy hitters, regularly topping the Prem's CAS rankings and ending the promising career of more than one opposition player. But they were more sophisticated than that and thanks to the 4 Warriors sporting a variety of skills and mutations such as Prehensile Tail, Tentacles, Diving Tackle and Guard they could effectively tie up more agile teams. The death of legendary Beastman CB and niggle of rising star Meltyman left much of the team's destructive potential in the unreliable hooves of the aptly named Conan the Useless. Some pundits claim the loss of CB was a good thing for HarsH North, as they had grown too bloated with excessive wage bills stifling the team. They pointed to the dominance of HarsH in the Q3 season compared to their less impressive performance in the final season of 2015.

Technically Minded were the season 58 champions of the SWL. They had the most impressive record of all the teams in the league with 35 wins, 9 draws and 6 losses giving them a 79% win ratio. The team was loaded with the standard Dwarven skills of Guard and Mighty Blow, but a smattering of stats and doubles gave them the ability to take on faster teams.

Superstar runner GLaDOS was their primary scorer with an impressive 39 TD's in 49 games. Whilst original team members Troll Slayer Wall-E and Blocker Astro Boy were the heavy hitters with 26 and 33 CAS respectively.

Match

The Dwarves received and got off to a dream start causing 2 injuries and another 2 knock outs on turn 1, as well as caging the ball safely. The Chaos were not out of the game yet, and started to hit back, gradually knocking Dwarves out over the next few turns until the numbers were equal again. The Dwarves were still able to make their way up the pitch, some valiant defending applied enough pressure to forced them to score in T6. There was still time for chaos to equalise, a Riot gave them an extra turn though a deep kick made it that much trickier. A solid defence by the Dwarves only allowed a few players to get in scoring range and a well-timed blast from a flame cannon hired specially for the game and smuggled into the crowd proved to be 150 k well spent. How turning the cannon upright and sticking a fake beard on it fooled the security team is anyone's guess. Head bouncer Rogth'nrgh was quoted as stating "Well all dose stunties look alike don they, nuffink but beards and metal".

1-0 down and facing a full Dwarf squad, HarsH North had a lot to do. Up till now the Dwarven armour had resisted the blows of the chaos team relatively well, but that all changed in the 2nd half as HarsH ripped through the Dwarven lines, causing multiple permanent injuries and knock outs. Some heroics by GLaDOS popped the ball loose and almost stopped the equaliser, but HarsH were able to recover it. The chaos gods don't tend to reward caution, so HarsH scored in T6 hoping to go for glory and win the game outright. Down to just 8 players, with 2 of their likely receivers already out and facing a full chaos team Technically Minded went for the tactical option of holding out for the draw. As holders the SWL needed to just avoid a loss to retain the title. Technically Minded were able to pull back and form a deep defence, as Harsh lacked the time or speed to chase down the ball carrier the game was destined to be a draw. Frustrated by this and with their bloodlust not sated Harsh's final act was to sacrifice Arnold Schwarzeneggar to the chaos gods via a gang foul.

It was WIL's turn to claim the moral victory from a draw having caused considerable permanent damage this game. More than 1 of HarsH's players would be entered into the Technically Minded team's book of grudges.

DrDiscoStu's Wä?a Warriors versus PurpleChest's White and Purple Smoke

With the first two games ending in draws, the SWL had the advantage. If the WIL wanted to be in with a chance of lifting the URN for the first time, they had to start winning games.

Since their formation, the Warriors had steadily worked their way through the lower leagues of the SWL. They spent several season in the middle divisions building up a strong team with many great players such as Ubirr III. For an Orc team they were surprisingly agile, with Ubirr, Kakadu Jr and Maguk III being able to dodge past opposing players almost as often as they smashed through them. So much so that amongst fans of their slower and clumsier opposition teams a common chant was "Are you Wood Elves in disguise" . The Warriors then launched a blistering assault on the top division, going on to win the SWL Prem straight after their promotion, and as the reigning SWL champions had a lot to prove.

They faced White a Purple Smoke, a High Elf team who won the first WIL Prem of 2015. Since then the High Elves had been having a tougher time, suffering many injuries and narrowly avoiding relegation in a few seasons of 2015. Nevertheless with 2 Superstar Blitzers Max and Leo, they were always a threat and had pulled off more than one upset in past.

Match

The Elves received, collected the ball and pushed down the left side of the pitch. The Orcs moved to shut this down but the nimble elves were able to elude them and easily score in turn 2. This was a risky strategy as the Smokes could have doomed themselves to 15 straight turns of pain at the hands of the vengeful Orcs. With typical Elven arrogance, they fancied their chances of a defensive TD or at least stopping the equaliser. Of course, having the magical support of long term patron and fanatical supporter high mage Furian the Pure in the crowd may have been a contributing factor as well!

The kick was deep and the Orcs secured the ball with Star Blitzer Ubirr III, forming a loose screen infront of him whilst the rest of the team got stuck into the Elven LOS. Little damage was done, so the Elves rushed forward knowing that if the Orcs could form a solid wall of greenskin flesh about the ball carrier it would prove very tough to crack. Although many of the Orcs were tied up, they still had plenty of scope to move forward and protect the ball. What should have been a simple case of Ubirr III brushing past a weak Elf Catcher ended in disaster when he was knocked flying. There were those who swear they saw an insubstantial fist fly from the stands to knock over Ubirr III and that no Elf could have upended such a powerful Orc. This led to several turns where both sides tried to recover the ball but neither could secure it. Eventually Elven agility proved to be superior and they ran in to score in turn 6.

2-0 down and only a couple of turns to keep the game alive meant the Orcs had a mountain to climb. A huge cheer went up as fan favourite the Goblin Ikoymarrwa ran onto the pitch. The crowd just loved to see him fly though the air and bets were exchanged on whether he would score, land on his face or get eaten by Jim Jim II. This time, the Orcs managed to keep hold of the ball but could only get a single player in scoring range. Gunlom Jr hugged the sidelines, already sure he would score got cocky and began mocking the Elven fans. This proved to be unwise as Furian was in that section of the crowd and took offence. Quicker than a Goblin could count to "2 and annuva wun" a Lightning Bolt flashed out and Gunlom Jr lay stunned on the ground. The Orcs last chance to equalise went after poor Ikoymarrwa was killed by Accidental Heroics.

Two touchdowns behind and facing a full Elven team, the Warriors would need to use all the grit and determination that led to them winning the SWL Prem. They started well by forming a strong cage and working their way up the pitch. The Elves, being ahead, were happy to run the clock down and stall out the Orcs. This called for more decisive action, and Ubirr III took the initiative, sprinting through a hole in the Smoke's defence. Just when it looked like he had broken free, he mysteriously slipped on a patch of ice. This was strange it being a warm sunny day and probably had nothing to do with that part of the pitch being so close to where Furian was sitting.

That ended all chances of a draw as the Elves recovered and went for a third TD, but the pass went awry; intercepted by Rookie Lineman Gubara II. This allowed the Orcs one more shot to pull back some pride and make the final result closer. To add insult to injury, the Elves were able to snatch this up and win the game 3-0. Worst of all for the Orcs, they caused very little damage to the snooty Elves, just a single injured elf Lineman. Probably the worst possible outcome of any game for the players of the Warriors was a game where they got to do little face punching, worst of all when facing stuck up British Elves.

The WIL went into the lead for the first time in two years, the crowd invaded the pitch and held aloft the scorers Scouse Tim, Zooom In Haste and mysteriously Furian as well who swore blind all he had done all game was cheer vigorously from the sidelines.

Faulcon's Slumbering Skink versus Ulrik's White Isle Lizards.

The Slumbering Skinks have a prestigious career in the SWL, being the longest serving team in the league and one of the oldest active teams in general. They had over four hundred games behind them, numerous records and titles over that period, and so were an obvious choice to represent the SWL. This made them the only team to be given the honour of taking part in all 3 Urns.

The White Isle Lizards had won the Prem convincingly in Q2, but since then had been targeted by their league rivals. The loss or injury of several key players meant they were too battered to defend their title and ended up relegated in Q3. Re-building the team around their 2 Legends Sir Psycho Sexy and Flawless Freak saw them gain promotion back to the Prem at the end of the year. Both teams went into the game sporting several injuries and the White Islers had just 10 regular players. They did bring this up to 11 by recruiting Star Player Helmut Wulf, reasoning his chainsaw could cut through tough scales as easily as it did metal armour.

With the WIL ahead and 2 games to go, this was a vital match as a loss for SWL would hand victory to the WIL. The SWLers had come back from tougher situations in the past though, such as in the first URN.

Match

The Islers received and got off to a strong beginning, grabbing the ball, knocking out one Saurus and taking out three players for good by the half way point, including the Krox and 2 other Saurus. They didn't have it all their own way, and the Slumbering Skinks did some damage back, most notably killing injured vet Timmy and his Tail. An opening in the WI Lizard's defence let the Superstar Skink Shntsyeooa sack the ball carrier, but the Islers were able to recover and score in T8. T8 was uneventful with no damage or successful OTT attempt.

The Skinks were suffering after the loss of most of their heavy hitters, but having done some damage in return (and with the Ref rejecting Helmut's excuse that his chainsaw was a 'back scratcher', sending him off) and with a deeper bench, they were still in with a shot for the second half. Unfortunately the weather was to be their undoing, the extreme heat proving too tempting with three of the Skinks living up to their team name, including Shntsyeooa, choosing to bask on a nice rock over playing, compared to just one from the WI Lizards. With a meagre 5 players facing off against 8, the Skinks didn't have the numbers left to protect the ball and were quickly overrun by the WILers.

The WILers attempts to stall out the half were stopped by Star Saurus Llstrr, who forced the score on top of causing 2 CAS in the first half.

Only a single player from each team sat out in the heat, which meant 7 players were available for each side. The Slumberers had a slim chance of pulling back a draw or at least getting a consolation score and doing some damage back. But a Blitz! put paid to that, and both teams ended up scrabbling for the ball the rest of the game.

The WIL were ecstatic to have finally won the trophy, and with one game still remaining! The White Isle Lizard's Premier opponents for next season had the extra pleasure of not having to face Timmy as well.

Barre's Large Head-on Colliders versus Azure's Seven Pillars.

The Pillars were famously passed over to represent the WIL Urn team last year, despite being a champion. Outraged by this slight, their coaching staff schemed long into the night, forming plans to avenge this injustice. Rumours abound that multiple agents of Clan Eshin have been hunting WIL commissioner Prez ever since, and only his foul necromantic sorceries have allowed him to remain functioning as league commissioner and head coach of Death Isle Ghosts. The only member of the WIL team not to win the championship, the Pillars earned their spot by being the most consistently successful team in 2015, with their worst result last year being 4th. Led by now sadly deceased team captain and legend Zeal, they scored with aplomb throughout the year and more than once beat up seemingly bashier opponents.

The Colliders had started 2015 in dominant position, winning the first two championships of the year. This added to their already crowded trophy shelf groaning under the weight of trophies from past SWL victories. Perhaps they had been too successful for their own good and were targeted by opposing forces as they were relegated in season 61. The team boasted three Legends in the shape of 2 Bull Centaurs Robert Brout and François Englert, as well as Hobgoblin sneutrino. These great players built around a solid support had been essential in the team's success. Trusting in the greater strength of their players and higher armour they elected not to hire any new players for this game and started with a squad of only 11.

The URN had already been won, this game was for pride, both teams were used to success so wouldn't be holding back. A win for the SWL would bring it back to a narrow defeat, whilst a WIL win would give the largest victory yet, and bring both leagues to the same number of won games over the total competition. This would allow WIL coaches to claim the series was tied based on overall results, conveniently brushing over the uncomfortable fact of losses in the previous 2 years.

Match

The Pillars won the toss and elected to receive. As is wont to happen with the devious ratmen their carefully laid plans immediately began to fall apart as bickering over who would get the first hit left them open to be blitzed by the more disciplined Chaos Dwarves. However, the horned rat proved to be watching over his furry disciples, and legendary Bull Centaur Robert Brout's gammy ankle gave out as he was powering into the Skaven LOS: causing him to stumble and land squarely on his head.

Lying prone surrounded by the WIL Prem's dirtiest team is not a good way to start the game, and proved disastrous as a gang foul in T2 crippled him further with his another ankle going. Many Collider fans were angry that the team Apothecary was not called to save the long-time fan favourite. Commentators speculated that Brout's wage demands had grown too high in last season's contract negotiations, and the multiple injuries he had picked up over his career made him a shadow of his former self (if not a bit of a liability). The Skaven made the most of this good fortune and quickly started removing Collider's players from the pitch, many permanently.

Compassion VII hung back in their half, leaving the rest of the team to symmetrically target the Chaos Dwarfs and Hobgoblins. The Colliders tried to fight back and did do some damage in return including killing Kindness X but more and more players disappeared under a tide of vermin, with gluon III being killed mid-half. By the time Compassion waltzed in for the score only 5 Colliders players remained for the 2nd half.

Despite Love II, Compassion VII and Kindness X being on the pitch, none of these qualities were on display in the second half as the Pillars began systematically removing the remaining Collider's players from the field. It is rumoured Mercy VIII (who fouled 7 times this game) acquired his name not through displaying this characteristic, but it being the most commonly heard final utterings of his gang foul targets.

After stealing the ball, Love II began showboating, throwing a pass to please the crowd before Zeal II scored in T4. The Colliders had long resigned them self to a heavy defeat, but T6 was especially painful. Both Atlas VI and LHCf XI were killed and Zeal ran in for the third touchdown, leaving just legendary Hobgoblin sneutrino to finish the game. This wasn't enough for the Pillars, as they passed up the chance to score a fourth TD in favour of trying to finish off sneutrino, though they only managed to knock him out.

Securing the assistance of Greyseer Spiketail was certainly a wise move for 7 Pillars. Rather than utilising his services for more conventional spells such as a Fireball or Lightning Bolt, they elected to have him cast an illusion so all the Collider's players resembled WIL commissioner Prez. This gave them the Pillars' squad extra motivation to win, and explained the savage brutality they continued to show, even once the game was clearly won.

With a 3-0 victory, clear pitch, 7 CAS (including 3 deaths), and 13 fouls, the Pillars had certainly stamped their mark on the URN. This proved to be quite literally true, as since the trophy has been displayed in WIL headquarters it appears to be gnawed in several places, and is wont to glow green and make peculiar noises when Morrslieb waxes full.

A big thanks to all those who made this issue of the GLN possible. Give them all a massive hand! They're all contributors, volunteers, heroes. Thanks to each and every one of them for their hard work!

Special thanks to all the artists who've made this issue nice and pretty. Cover by traaw (check this guy's work on deviantart, his drawings are amazing). Coach pictures by boeufmironton (our local genious). Ads created by Kam using artwork by Alara Shade, theartofanimation, igorvet and blouson. Crossword Goblin by richardsymonsart. Various images from akaRenton's Image Library.