With the Second Season Edition of Bloodbowl now released and making it into all of our hands, it is high time we not only look at starting rosters but at how to invest your hard-earned Star Player Points (SPP)!  To mark the occasion, we’ll be starting out with one of the new teams from the starter set, the ​Black Orcs​.

Goblin Bruiser Linemen

These Goblins are more sturdy than the ones you’ve seen on the pitch before,  otherwise, they are exactly like others of their kind. So their Primary skills are only Agility skills, with their Secondary skills being General, Passing and Strength.  You can have up to 12 Goblins in your team, so you have a lot of space for many different ways to level them up – but before we come to that, I want to talk about  Characteristic Improvements first. To be able to roll on the characteristics table, you need to accrue 18 SPP (if this is your first level up). Which definitely is a lot – but, for  Goblins not one of the improvements is bad!

Got Movement? Great, the top speed of the team just improved!
Got Armour? Great, your primary ball carriers are now harder to remove!
Got Agility? 2+ Dodges, ​with​ Stunty on top? Yes, please!
Got Passing? The team just got another option to move the ball!
Got Strength? The Strength 3/Stunty combo makes 1-die cage dives possible!

I’m definitely not recommending going for the Characteristics Improvement on every Goblin, because that will stunt the development of your team – but choosing one of them and seeing what you’ll get is definitely worth it in my humble opinion!  With that said, let’s move on to some suggestions on how you can build your Goblins:

Ball Retriever/Carrier

Primary: Side Step, Catch, Jump Up, Sprint/Sure Feet
Secondary: Sure Hands, Block

These players will be your primary ball handlers, so I would start them out with Sure Hands (which is a secondary), so they get an in-built reroll to pick up the ball. Sidestep will help them stay next to the ball if they fail the pick-up, or can help you out of sticky situations if you do get blocked (Safe Pair of Hands could then be another skill you might want to take)! With Catch, you get to reroll the hand-off (or pass) catch attempt without having to spend a team reroll.

Jump Up and Sprint (or Sure Feet) just extend your movement range to get to loose balls that are in just one tackle-zone too many for your non-stunty players. And last but not least, Block helps them stay on their feet.

Sacker

Primary: Jump Up, Sure Feet/Sprint
Secondary:Wrestle, Dauntless, Strip Ball, Break Tackle

This guy obviously needs a lot of SPP to work. And if he gets that +1 Strength, he becomes even more dangerous. Wrestle is my preferred skill for Sackers, because it means Block can’t save your opponent’s player. Dauntless, to bridge the Strength deficit the Goblins have in comparison to most players. Strip Ball will knock the ball loose (except if your opponent has Sure Hands) even if you don’t manage to knock the ball carrier down. With the changes to Break Tackle it can become a very valuable tool for stunty players.

Once per turn, Break Tackle adds +1 to a dodge roll – so you can get into that cage on a 2+ instead of a 3+. With all the other skills this player is loaded with, that becomes a scary prospect!

Fouler

Primary: Sneaky Git
Secondary:Dirty Player

Yes, you only need two skills to have the complete skill package for this role! And a fouling Goblin can’t be missed on a team that gets cheap bribes! With Sneaky Git you can only get send off for a double roll on the Injury roll, and you can continue moving after fouling. And Dirty Player gives you +1 to either the Armour or Injury roll.

Flying Goblin

Primary: Catch. Sprint, Sure Feet
Secondary: Break Tackle

In the time of dice rolls for level-ups, you didn’t really build for this kind of player – they just happened. With the new rules, if your “chosen” Goblin manages to get the Agility improvement, think about building them into your dedicated throw-piece. With Agility 2+ they have an easier time landing, while Sprint and Sure Feet make sure they can run the ball in for the touchdown after landing, Break Tackle gives them that little extra burst, should they need it, to get through the tackle zones in between the Goblin and the endzone. Catch is a safety harness, so the opponent won’t swarm your Troll to prevent you from throwing on your next turn, because instead of catching the damn Goblin decided to play hot potato with the ball!

Mobile Assist

Primary: Side Step, Defensive
Secondary: Guard, Block

With their ability to manoeuvre through (or into) even the densest tackle zones Goblins can make great assistants! Especially since getting Secondary skills is not a matter of if, but when in this new edition. Side Step keeps them close to where you want them to be. Guard helps your Black Orcs in punching, and Defensive helps to make it harder for your Black Orcs to get punched back, with Block added in for general survivability. With Guard now also assisting on Fouls, these Goblins will be even more useful than before!

Tackle Goblin
(aka General Nuisance)

Primary: Side Step, Diving Tackle, Jump Up
Secondary: Block/Wrestle

Your opponent’s worst nightmare. Stick one of these Goblins onto their ball carrier, and they’ll be stumped on what to do. Dodge out? That easy 2+ dodge an Elf normally wouldn’t think twice about is suddenly a 4+! And even if the Elf makes it out, Jump Up means the little ankle biter will be right back for more on the next turn. Blitz-Block the Goblin and then move away? If the Elf rolls to push the Goblin, we’ll use Side Step and still be right next to them. If they roll both down, we’ll either not be knocked down due to Block, or can even free up the ball with Wrestle. And even if our Nuisance is knocked down, they’ll jump to their feet on the very next turn (bar any stuns, or worse…) and will scour the field for a shiny new pair of ankles to bite into.

On the heavier side of things, we also have the Black Orcs & Trained Troll!