This issue the topic for the newly fabreezed couch is the Skills of the CRP. We’ve grabbed some coaches that 'claim' experience and got them to talk, whether they wanted to or not. The bar is serving cocktails, mostly Mohito’s and Mai Tai’s, but with the odd Martini thrown in. The nibbles are kalimata and lugano olives.

The gathered throng are:
turboraton: Over 30 games in the box and plenty on the FFB beta.
freak_in_a_frock: Over 120 games of FFB
awambawamb: 160 games both FFB and Real Life.
jimmyfantastic: 160 games, half FFB and half Real Life.
JockMcRowdy: Over 40 games of FFB and a huge CR.

GLN: as a way of saying hello, and as is now traditional, please tell the readers something about yourself they wont yet know.

turboraton: hi there, first world citizens! It is true, we ride llamas.
jimmyfantastic: Hi, I look a lot like Brett Favre, but thankfully not from the waist down!
awambawamb: mmmh... my girlfriend doesn't know that I play BB. She believes I quit some time ago.
JockMcRowdy: In Blood Bowl I tend to whine a lot but in real life....I'm exactly the same
freak_in_a_frock: The last game I conceded was over 5 years ago, I conceded because my chair broke and I cut my arm on the radiator, requiring stitches
JockMcRowdy: rofl that’s a lack of commitment
turboraton: should have re-connected on the hospital!

GLN: OK. We're here to discuss the skills of CRP, the Competition Rule Pack, for Blood Bowl. As a way of setting a benchmark, how would you score the CRP rules out of 10 and in one sentence why?

JockMcRowdy: 6. Many great improvements but I feel a lot of the fluff is gone and some skills are gimmicky and don’t fit. a lot of the fun is gone too, less silliness.
freak_in_a_frock: I agree with Jock, now you have to actively make a fun team, rather than have one develop. I would score them an 8. I like that they have balanced the game a lot, but in some ways it takes away a lot of the fun. The game has become a lot more about skill choices rather than skill rolls
awambawamb: They have highs and lows, but in general I'd give them a 6. They're good for quick playing and that's good, but I don't like the complexity of some of them, along with the no braining of others. I agree with the point about skill choices rather than rolls, very rarely do I take doubles on S access players now.
jimmyfantastic: I would score it about 7. Nerfing Dp is terrible but at least they got rid of ageing.
turboraton: I'd go for 8. Aging, Inducements, Journeymen are strong points of this rule set.

GLN: Great, Lets us know where you're all coming from. So onto the skills themselves. As that’s why we're here. Several are brand new, let’s talk about them. Fend for example, what do you make of it? is it the new dodge?

JockMcRowdy: My main gripe is the loss of traits, doubles used to mean access to slightly more powerful skills that added some flair to your team, none were game breaking and I think they will be a big loss, stand firm random dodging hilarity especially
freak_in_a_frock: Fend will never be the new dodge, it is too situational. Until a team has real success by spamming fend it will always be a secondary choice
awambawamb: I don't like dice-depending abilities; they kick the strategy out of the game. like Jump Up, now ridiculous for a low Ag player. And skills that cancel each other - they just don't make sense.
jimmyfantastic: Dodge is a far superior skill but fend can certainly keep players alive a little bit more.

GLN: What situations will we see fend in then? what players WILL it keep alive?

turboraton: I have faced LoS Fend, and I can say it works, it's annoying and it can cause troubles on your positioning, It's a good addition in my opinion
freak_in_a_frock: Fend seemed to only be added because piling on become so over-powered it needed a counter skill. Surely if that is the case they should really have looked at toning down piling on a bit
JockMcRowdy: I have only used fend for LOS players, its useful but if a player has more than G access there are too many other choices that come before it, doesn’t fit with fluff either how exactly does a guy stop someone following up when they have been knocked over?
jimmyfantastic: really good 1st skill for norse linos and if you have a star you don’t want to eaten by a mb po guy
awambawamb: So they overpowered Piling On: let's make Fend! But Fend is too nice to avoid it, so let's make Juggernaut! what's going to come for Juggernaut? That's a chain of overruling...
jimmyfantastic: They sure did overpower piling on but at least there is some violence left in the game after they killed Dp and fouling.
awambawamb: And razor sharp claws, and claws
turboraton: LoS Fend is the way to go for me. Not on 1st skill but perhaps on 2nd
JockMcRowdy: I agree with the skill countering comments, if fend was suddenly removed and piling on toned down I’m not sure it would be missed

GLN: Ok, let’s move on a little, I plan to cover those in time, and I am SURE they'll crop up again. The other skill getting a lot of press is wrestle, similarly situational? or a new 'must have'? A lot of people seem to think it’s a cage breaking, ball getting dream.

jimmyfantastic: It's certainly good on teams with less than stellar access to guard and decent movement. Which is a lot of teams. I think it will replace block more and more on the weaker teams.
awambawamb: HELL YEAH! Players with wrestle have now 50% to remove 8 tackle zones for one turn. Not bad!
turboraton: I play lots of Skaven, and I tell you that having wrestle is very good both when attacking and when defending. It is also great on LoS.
JockMcRowdy: this also sits in with the 'we must have a way to counter this skill' theory, but I actually like wrestle block WAS something that needed more interaction
freak_in_a_frock: wrestle was a good skill to include, combines well with a lot of other skills. Stripballers now have another weapon, slow players can be brought down easier.

GLN: how will we see wrestle used? what will it combine with?

jimmyfantastic: I think its a little silly fluff wise that it’s general. I would have liked it to be strength access .I don't imagine wood elfs out wrestling black orcs.
freak_in_a_frock: I disagree, I see it a lot like a judo move, using the opponent’s weight against them
JockMcRowdy: LOS players and a dedicated ball getter, so a wrestle strip ball guy, obviously jump up will be nice with it
awambawamb: What's the point of having both wrestle and strip ball? when the ball carrier will be prone, he will lose the ball automatically...
jimmyfantastic: block
freak_in_a_frock: Wrestle is almost a must have for a slann team. Stops the ball being safe anywhere
turboraton: Wrestle is great on gobos!

GLN: Why gobos? what use would that be?

jimmyfantastic: they are decent movement and the team lacks guard. this is the primary requirement for wrestle guys.
turboraton: Wrestle creates many holes that your ball handler can take
freak_in_a_frock: I would prefer dauntless on a double for a gobo, now it is available
awambawamb: And makes dwarves move of only one pitiful square per turn!
turboraton: Imo, as opposed to block, Wrestle create many chances, I expect Skaven team winning lots of majors thanks to wrestle

GLN: And possibly the other widely available brand new skill is grab? situational again? or does it get you all as excited as wrestle clearly does?

freak_in_a_frock: Grab will be a very good way of setting an OTT up without the need of a blitz to start it off. You can then save that blitz for the run in
jimmyfantastic: far too situational in my opinion. maybe one on the team for OTS attempts and a bit of frenzy
JockMcRowdy: to be fair I haven’t ever used it, but it seems very gimmicky to me, 'we have side step, needs a counter' again will have its uses but too many others skills worth having before it, cant see it appearing too often, but I may be proved wrong
turboraton: Sadly I have not played with a team with lots of S access and neither against them. But I can see that Grab is a good skill as well to create a hole where your runner can move in. Sometimes you can't run for the TD and now thanks to Grab/Guard you might now.
awambawamb: Grab is a poorly developed idea, as it conflicts with Frenzy, and gets cancelled by side step. Waste of skill points makes games more boring, imho
freak_in_a_frock: I have also seen suggestions of the crowd surf opportunities with grab. And trees will love grab, finally that take root won't stop them from wanting to hit people
GLN_Barman: Players with tentacle gain much from grab, like the BoN.
JockMcRowdy: true, hadn’t considered trees and tents types
GLN: Silence barman, and fetch Mohitos.
jimmyfantastic: and essential if you ever take multiblock because you cant follow up on multiblock anymore so you want to keep the two guys next to you.
JockMcRowdy: they really ruined multiblock