A while ago, I wrote an article about the new Halfling Positionals and how much I absolutely adored them! Well, now’s the time for me to take a look at the team as a whole and what kind of Halfling Starting Rosters one might want to play!

The biggest change, of course, is the addition of the aforementioned additions who are still present in the 2020 release of Blood Bowl, but other than that most things have stayed the same. Unlike a few other teams, costs for the Hopefuls and Treemen have remained the same and they may even benefit slightly from the new casualty table, meaning less money spent on replacing players (albeit cheaply) and more spend on those ever so important inducements and Star Players.

One thing I’ll point out here before we go ahead and start on the Halfling Starting Rosters is that Deeproot is not only a little cheaper but his gains the elusive Mighty Blow +2, making him arguably one of the best Star Players in the whole game in my very humble opinion. For many Coaches he was a must take before, so to see him get a slight buff is going to please many a Halfling Fan!

Filling the Cooking Pot, 3 ReRolls TV1000 Roster:

Halflings are cheap, so it’s very easy to take everything! Without a doubt, you’ll want both Treemen as they’re pretty much the only ‘good’ player on the team and are your Throw Team-Mate platforms which are one of your few ways of scoring. Of course in the old days, you had to rely on a regular AG3+ Hopeful to receive a Hand Off and then attempt to run into the Endzone with 5 squares worth of movement followed by two rushes! Well, now it’s still just as bad but we have a player who’s a little better at it…. the Catcher! I sang the praises of these fellas in my article so I won’t gush too much about them here, but Catch & Sprint make them just that little bit more reliable in those one turners, so I’d definitely take both as often this is your primary scoring method.

The Hefty’s have been a little more polarising, but I like them! Fend gives you a little more freedom after being hit and AV8+ means you might just have 1 of them remaining by the end of the game. PA3+ is kinda interesting here as well, as Stunty usually makes Passing pretty darn risky. However, I can see Hail Mary being a great defensive skill on him if you manage to get the ball loose. You’re not going to be giving him the usual passing skills really, but HMP plus Sidestep/Diving Tackle could make a decent player!

With 9 Hopefuls you come to 15 players, leaving a slot for Star Player (*cough Deeproot, *cough*). The rest is filled with the Apothecary, 2 Dedicated fans and your choice of an Assistant Coach or Cheerleader. You could switch the latter 3 up to your liking but I think the Fans will probably benefit you more as you’ll be wanting to win the Kick-Off events where you might get some fun bonuses.

Going forward it’s going to be about replacing Halflings where needed and using any cash for Chefs, Bribes and Deeproot Strongbranch.

No there a no other Star Players! NONE AT ALL!

Deeproot Strongbranch says “Hello.”, 1 ReRoll TV1000 Roster:

This is a slightly updated variant on a Halfling Starting Roster I used back in the old SideQuest League, with the idea being you had 400k in Petty Cash to use on Deeproot and the Chef. We can tweak it ever so slightly now that Deeproot has gotten 20k cheaper and we have some more positional options, but by and large, this list has stayed the same.

The usual 2 Treeman + 10 Hopefuls gives you a team of 600k with the single ReRoll, but with Mr Root’s cost drop, we’ve now got a whole 20k to spend! I’d of loved to have added the Catcher but he’s 5k too much, so instead I’ve converted the 10th Hopeful into a Hefty, if only for some variety and additional AV to the team.

There’s a lot of management with this team as you’ll constantly need to make sure you’re 380k beneath everybody else, so rather than adding in the Catchers and 2nd Hefty in as additional members, you’ll probably want to save them as replacements for dead or injured Hopefuls when you have the TV spare. I’d definitely prioritise getting a Catcher first due to the better TTM potential.

Three Trees on the line is absolutely terrifying, but remember they have limited movement even with Deeproot thankfully missing out on the Take-Root skill. You’ll want to get Grab on your regular Trees as quickly as possible as it helps negate Take-Root, probably followed by Multi-Block or Break Tackle. If you get +MV, take it immediately of course.

Halfling Starting Rosters, Conclusion:

The new positionals for the Halflings have at last added some variety other than just Trees and regular ‘Lings, even if they’re not quite enough to drag them up a tier! Personally I’m really excited about trying these guys out soon in our GRUMBBL League and with Blood Bowl 3 not far from us (as of the time of writing at least), us Halfling players will be able to try out these new guys in the not so distant future. Blood Bowl 2020 is looking pretty good for Stunty players as well with some of the changes being made, so even more reason to pick up one of these teams….. and by that I mean pick up the Halflings!

Also as of the time of writing THE PLASTIC TREEEMAN STILL HAVEN’T BEEN RELEASED!!!!!! C’MON GW!!! HURRY IT UP!!! NEVERMIND THEY’RE FINALLY HERE!

So that’s that, I hope you enjoyed our look at the Halfling Starting Rosters. If you want to see more, check out our other BB2020 lists

Also we’ve started on our Player Builds, of which all four Halfling positionals are ready for viewing!