There are many Halfling Blood Bowl guides on the web, most are very good in fact and do a rather good job of showcasing the team’s strengths, of which there are few, as well as their weaknesses, of which there are many. This is kind of like those, however, having just finished playing over 40 games with the Hamilton Hopefuls, this is going to be both a guide and discussion from what I’ve learned over the course of the last 3 seasons, taking into account both the in-game experience I’ve gained as well as what I learned from other articles and posts. It’s worth mentioning that, this team was played with Blood Bowl 2 so I’ll be referring to that particular Halfling team for this article.

To begin I do want to say I’ve loved this team from start to finish, Halflings are an entirely unique challenge that even Goblins or Ogres don’t quite replicate. You are on the back foot every single game for its entire duration, even if you find yourself with a big player advantage, the fact is the Halfling players themselves are just woeful at… everything! Goblins at least are AV8+/MV6 and have the craziness of their special weapons, while Ogres have their… well Ogres to cause damage and create a wall of strength which is tough for most teams to bust through. The Halflings themselves are slow, have average agility, low strength and paper-thin armour and while they’re cheap and replaceable, unfortunately on the pitch they just die in droves and a good opponent isn’t going to worry at all about how large your bench is, that’s just more SPP for them to earn! Dodge is wonderful early on but as I’ve learned, most teams will have plenty of Tackle/MB which absolutely ruins Halflings, (we’ll talk more about that in a bit) and I really found Dodging away is just as dangerous as getting hit.

Despite all this, despite the pain, the constant replacements and the fact that I only managed a win once every four games, I don’t think I’ve quite experienced the highs and lows of Blood Bowl quite the same with any other team. Winning is, utterly euphoric with this team, the fact that you’ve beaten seemingly insurmountable odds feels amazing and there’s a true sense of achievement that other teams just don’t quite have. At the same time, however, oh boy, there are games where you feel like you might as well have not bothered showing up that day and there are some teams and games where no matter how well you play, you had no chance from the first dice roll. But I’ve loved every minute of it regardless, even while getting annoyed or frustrated about the unwinnable or… even unplayable games, this is a team that’s surprised me all the way through and I hope I can share some of that with you during this, perhaps bittersweet, Halfling Blood Bowl guide.

Deeproot Strongbranch and the Halfling Master Chef are ESSENTIAL | Halfling Guide

I cannot emphasise this further, both of these inducements are utterly crucial when it comes to playing this team, particularly in a League format like ours. Deeproot if you have rotten luck is pretty much your only way to get Block on a Treeman, which as I found is so damn helpful. He does WORK early on and is often your primary source of removals on the team as well as your only real Blitzing (lol) threat with the Trees. The fact that he’s S7 means you’ll be getting 3 dice against most players who get stuck with line duty, then getting 2 against everyone else, including big guys.

As for the Chef, again utterly game-changing, particularly early on when teams are often more reliant on their Team Rerolls as opposed to player skills, but unlike Deeproot who is pretty reliable, the Chef can be both amazing and useless at the same time. You will have games where you just don’t steal anything and if you use the build where you’re always around 400TV down, you’ll find yourself with only the single reroll to use in the game. On the other hand, when you steal 2 or 3, you’ll find those games much, much easier as your opponent’s bad rolls start to pile up and they have the play much more conservatively, which does help Halflings a lot.

Both of these inducements, I will say, lose their effectiveness later on. I found Season 6 (the third season for this team) to be really difficult and I think it was due to Deeproot and the Chef being less impactful. At that point, most teams are full of things like Dodge, Sure Feet, Catch etc, so the Team RRs are less meaningful outside of more risky plays, so even stealing all 3 while useful for you, doesn’t often mean much for your opponent as their player skill will fill in the gaps. Deeproot will find himself against more Block and Dodge, meaning that he’ll inflict less damage by being more easily avoided and by being more reliant on Defender Downs to actually make those armour rolls. As per this Halfling Blood Bowl Guide … I’d still take them both every game if I can however, they’re just that good and lift the team up massively.

Zara and Puggy make for EXCELLENT secondary Star Players | Halfling Guide

More often than not, you’ll find yourself with lots and lots of cash, especially as the league and seasons go on and other teams get level-ups, while you’re left behind in the SPP race. What that does mean, is that you’ll be able to get yourself a second Star Player and I’d heartily recommend either Zara or Puggy. If you got the cash I’d always go for Zara (doubly so against Undead, Vampires etc) as MV6 is blindingly fast for this team and her combo of Blodge and Strength 4 means she becomes your defacto Blitzer! She also becomes your only real way of dealing with Blodge ball carriers unless you somehow get Tackle on a backfield halfling. Stab works decently against those pesky AV7 Catchers/Skinks/Gutter Runners and more often than not will be your only way to even attempt to bring them down (although if they’re lacking block, I’d use the normal hit.

Puggy is a very good cheap option as well if you don’t quite have enough for Zara. Blodge is always excellent and ST3 means he won’t be going down quite as often as your regular halflings. He also comes with Nerves of Steel which, while you won’t be throwing the ball, makes for a decent skill to use if you fancy handing it off to him for safekeeping. I wouldn’t throw the poor bastard (as you’ll likely need to loner roll the landing… not ideal!) but he’s probably your best option if you find yourself running the ball down the pitch. He’s not an awful Blitzer (for Halflings anyway) as you’ll be getting 2 Die vs ST3 players with a single assist.

Block on the Trees is a MUST! | Halfling Guide

A little harder to do in Blood Bowl 2 thanks to the random level-ups, but the moment you get a double, Block is an absolute must take. I was really fortunate to have both of my trees get Block as their first skill, helped massively and likely contributed to my Division One survival. They become much more of a threat and you’ll find braver coaches much less likely to try their luck with single die blocks to take them down and force them to roll to stand up. You get so many more removals which is pretty much Halfling’s primary tactic and in doing so, get them more SPP. This is all fairly obvious but, if you’re in a long 40 game campaign like the type we do in GRUMBBL, you need your Trees to be as levelled up as possible in order to keep up and have even a sliver of a chance to compete.

Throw Team-Mate is so much FUN, but shouldn’t be Plan A to score! | Halfling Guide

One of the main draws to the Halfling team is that they’re arguable the best team to attempt throwing their players around as the Trees won’t their stunty colleagues or Bone Head and fail the action altogether, as well as having Strong Arm to give it a decent chance to go through. It’s also just so much fun to do and when it goes off there’s no other feeling like it in the game, especially when it results in a touchdown.

Unfortunately, I’ve found it much easier to walk the ball into the endzone as opposed to relying on throwing. Landing with a Halfling on AG3 is a 4+ or a 50% chance to go through (or 75% with a team reroll) but it feels a lot, lot less! One of the other admins worked out my Landing success rate this season was around the 30% zone which is very, very low. Once you get an AG4 Halfling (which took my team 38 games to achieve!) it’s a bit better but I’ve found that it’s a very unreliable Plan A.

Throwing your players at the opposing team, however? SCREW THE ODDS JUST DO IT!!!(Excited squealing warning!)

There’ll be more of these Halfling Blood Bowl Guides to come, discussing the Halfing players themselves and what opponents to look out for, so keep an eye out next week!