Warfare is not an Exact Science – Kaldor Draigo, 2018 

AND NEITHER IS DEFENDING IN BLOOD BOWL!

With so many skills and ways of attacking with Cross Cages, Loose Cages, pumping receivers into the back line, 1-0 grinds, 2-1 grinds it can be difficult to pin down exactly how to stop your opponent in their tracks. Some teams also do it better than others, Elves for example with their AG4, skills like Dodge and of course Leap, are masters of screening off the attackers and putting pressure on the ball, whereas slower teams like Orcs, Dwarves and Chaos, rely on brute strength which doesn’t always necessary work (although any Elf player will tell you their double 1s always come at just to wrong time!). Defending in Blood Bowl is often overlooked thanks to attacking having more flair and “fun” associated with it.

For a lot of newer or less experienced coaches, defending can be quite daunting. Attacking is relatively simple, get the ball to the endzone, but defence tends to have multiple conditions to achieve that touchdown prevention.

For this blog I want to talk about one of the main defensive tactics newer coaches are introduced to when learning about defending in Blood Bowl… let’s get into Marking! (For now, we’re assuming it’s your turn and you’re moving free players into base contact without intentions to block or blitz)

Marking or “Basing” is the simple act of putting your own player right next to an enemy! This is usually by using your standard move action, making a block and following up or pushing an opponent into the tackle zone of another friendly player. The reason we do this is to limit that players options for their turn, as it forces them to do one of three things:

1. Make a dodge roll to escape the tackle zone
2. Block your player, either with a 1 Die block or 2 die if they’re higher STR or by bringing another player to assist.
3.  Stay where they are and get hit next turn.

With the exception of 3, this means your opponent has to roll dice against you, which is a good thing as the more dice you force them to roll, the more likely they are to fail. The average AG of a player in Blood Bowl is 3 which means they have a 67% chance of successfully dodging out. This may seem like quite a high percentage but if you force them to do this multiple times, there’s a higher chance of failure. 2 dodges drops down to 44%, 3 dodges all the way down to 30%! Tackle and Diving Tackle really help here as well, the former negating the Dodge skill meaning they might be forced to use a Team ReRoll, while Diving Tackle gives a lovely -2 to the dodge rolls! (So even an elf is now dodging on a 4+!!!) Teams with mutations or some big guys can also get access to Prehensile Tail, or Tentacles, both of which help against dodging players.

Blocking you isn’t always a guarantee either, especially if you’re marking with players who have Block, Stand Firm or Wrestle. They might not even have an opportunity to hit you with a 2 die if you’ve successfully marked players who might usually move to assist, meaning they either leave you alone or hit you with a risky 1 die block. Sidestep is also pretty useful here if they do end up hitting you then even if they knock you down, YOU get to choose where you go, meaning you can put yourself into an advantageous or just less dangerous position. This is why Blodgestep (Block, Dodge, SideStep) is so powerful, they have a low chance to knock you down even on a two die and then you can just easily reposition where you feel like it.

Now that’s not to say Marking is always the best option. If you’re lacking skills then higher agility players will laugh at you as they happily waltz away on an easy 2+. Stronger, players like Black Orcs, Chaos Warriors or even Big Guys will be gleeful as they smash your poor players face in with 2 die blocks, although you can usually avoid a few blows if they’re unskilled (see below). You’ll see quite a few guides online that suggest you “don’t give away free blocks” and that’s essentially what you’re doing by marking. If you’re basing guys who have Block, Mighty Blow, Claw, then you need to be prepared to get hit and get hit hard. This is why you’ll find marking with AV9 is usually better than AV7 as the latter tends to turn into dust if they end up marking a particularly bashy player. In addition to leaving yourself open to getting hit, you can find yourself out of position by committing too many players to marking up. This is quite a common mistake and something I’ve had to personally work on throughout my blood bowl “career”. If you’re too aggressive and commit your entire team to marking, a few good knockdowns or dodges will see the ball carrier fly far away from your defensive line and in turn, even if they just get pushes, your own players are now marked and you’ve got to commit to rolling dice to reposition.

So who DO you want to base? Well, these are a few good options that I find tend to work well while defending in Blood Bowl.

The Ball Carrier
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way, shall we? There is very rarely a reason not to mark the ball carrier. By doing so you’re putting pressure on the ball, meaning more dice rolls for your opponent to get rid of your players as a coach really doesn’t want to make risky plays with their carrier for fear of losing the ball. It’s uncommon to see the carrier block or dodge themselves, the better play is to use the surrounding players to get them free. If you can mark the carrier up, especially with a Blodgstep, Stand Firm or high STR player, you’re causing all manner of problems for your opponent. Even throwing is a risk thanks to the negative modifiers you’re applying to them,

Blitzers
But Blitzers tend to have good skills! Why would I base someone who can hit me or run away easily! – I hear you cry and you’re not wrong! However, this is best used alongside marking cages or ball carriers as it means your opponents high skill players have to dodge away to get at your ball markers. This means dice rolls, which means a chance of failure and if you’re marking more than one blitzer…. well remember you only get one blitz per turn!

Unskilled, High Strength Players
I love marking unskilled Black Orcs, Saurus and Chaos Warriors, especially with bog standard linemen. One of the key reasons you want to mark up a player is to take them out of the game and marking these low agility, slow players is a great way to do so. Early on you’ll find these ST4 guys are lacking block thanks to their reliance on Casualties for SPP, so their chance of knocking you down isn’t that great (56%). Using inexpensive and quite frankly replaceable linemen to mark these guys is a great way to take them out the game, especially if they’re insistent on following up. Once they start getting Block and Mighty Blow however, it’s best to avoid them if you can.

Receivers
The opponent has broken through your line and put his receiver within scoring distance… well you can just blitz him right or try and stop the pass right? Well, let’s say his thrower is well defended and he’s got multiple receivers within range, you can only blitz once remember! Mark these guys if you think a pass is coming, it’ll make the catch harder thanks to your negative modifiers and even if they do catch it then have to dodge out. Try and mark these guys by putting your player on the square nearest to the endzone. This means to score they either need to dodge away from the endzone, giving them less movement and forcing them to make GFI’s, or they have to do a risky -1 dodge through tackle zones. Even better if you can mark these guys with two players on opposite sides of the receiver, that’s a -2 catch then a -1 dodge no matter where they go. Nerves of Steel does mitigate this, so try and limit their movement and make them roll difficult dodges.

By extension, if you can mark the Thrower do so to add that negative modifier (assuming no Nerves of Steel)

Big Guys
I personally find this situational and only ever do it with standard linemen or journeymen. It’s hard to take these guys out of the game and sometimes it’s simply better to remove their support (Really Stupid), run away or screen them off. Most Big Guys come with Mighty Blow and are STR5 or higher, meaning you ARE going to get hit and that +1 to the Armour/Injury roll is too good to ignore. If you’re lucky or are drowning in skilled linemen, their lack of General access means you might be able to avoid knockdowns while distracting these guys. That’s what you’re doing really, distracting them away from your key players with disposable linemen, plus they usually have loner so if they roll double skulls or even both downs, your opponent is probably going to get a turnover. Break Tackle, unfortunately, makes this a lot less effective. Although not necessarily Big Guys, Journeyman are good to base as well thanks to Loner, the lack of a reroll makes hitting you or dodging even riskier.

Guard
If you can prevent Guard from getting into the fight, that’s a big plus. Marking these guys will usually force a dodge as your opponent won’t want to risk their Guard piece. Be careful doing this against Blitzers, Dwarves and Norse, as you’ll probably get hit with a cheeky 1 die with block.

Who DON’T you want to mark?

AG4 Dodge
2+ with a reroll is a 98% success rate. Unless you have Tackle or Diving Tackle, you’re better off trying to set up assists elsewhere or screen off. Defending in Blood Bowl is all about increasing opponent risk, these guys laugh at that.

Big Guys
As mentioned above they’re risky thanks to Mighty Blow and STR 5+, plus strength access means Break Tackle is easy to get. The Beast of Nurgle gets a special mention here as Tentacles is fantastic on him, you REALLY don’t want to be basing this guy. Dodge away and screen off instead, or try to push them away if you have the numbers. Prehensile Tail on the Kislev Bear and Croxigor is a pain as well. I wouldn’t base Treemen either thanks to Take Root and MV3, they’re very unlikely to catch up with you (although you may find a Halfling being thrown into your players face from across the pitch!!). This counts for some Star Players as well thanks to their often superior strength and skills.

Mighty Blow/Claw/Piling On/Chainsaws
You’ll get hit and probably have your armour broken. Avoid these guys at all costs or try to get them off the pitch!

Even certain linemen might not be worth marking. Players like Rotters, Zombies, Skeletons and other fodder are quite happy for you to waste a turn marking them up, in fact, a lot of these cheap linemen are perfect for tying up your players.

Skills that make Marking better!
Tackle – Negate that Dodge!
Diving Tackle – Minus 2 to that roll…mmmm
Tentacles – YOU AINT GOING ANYWHERE BIATCH!
Prehensile Tail – Again, negative modifiers are goooood.
Shadowing – Haven’t mentioned it above (As I don’t like Assasins, sorry), but this is a very good Marking skill as you’re just following your opponent around. Works best on high MV players.
Block/Wrestle/Dodge/Sidestep – All good for if they try to hit you back.
STR4+ – Pretty much forces a dodge, otherwise that’s’ a free 2 die block for you! Just try not to get counter marked and have your heavy hitters taken out of the game as we mentioned above.

I hope this blog helps a little, marking up is a skill in its own right and doing it well will bring you closer to victory! Defending in Blood Bowl can be tricky, even I’m not an expert in it and make mistakes, it’s all about practice and seeing what works for you depending on your opponent and your own team.

Next time, we’ll get into Screening!

– Aaramus 😀

Disclaimer – I take no responsibilty if you try the above and lose or have all your guys die 😉