Today I’m going to take a quick look at the newly revealed blood bowl team, the Old World Alliance. Much like I did with the Halfling additions, that I wrote….. last year….eek, this will very much be a first impression of the team, how I think it could play, any strengths or weaknesses that may be present and how fun it might be.

Along with the recent Snotling reveal, this is another brand new team for the tabletop game (Blood Bowl 2 players will have to wait for BB3 if that ever happens). But rather than it being wholly new, this falls in under the category of “Hybrid” teams, much like Underworld and Renegades. This time, it’s a union of Humans, Dwarves and Halflings, which should make things interesting, one would think anyway.

Rather than going through each positional one by one as there’s nothing especially new here, I’m going to have a look at each section of the team, the Human aspect, then Dwarves, then Halflings.

As mentioned this is a first impression, the reveal only came onto the subreddit yesterday and due to social distancing, it’s not like we can play any games. When I get my hands on the team proper I’ll write another, more in-depth look. (Another blog I’ve promised… I really should stop doing that and just write the damn things.)

So, let’s go, shall we?

Human Positions

The first part of the team are the humans, where you get the following:
0-12 H-Linemen
0-1 H-Thrower
0-1 H-Catcher
0-1 H-Blitzer
0-1 Ogre (yes I’m going to include him here as I view his as part of the Human side.

Stats wise, it’s as you’d expect, with the exception of Animosity being included in everything but the Ogre.

Animosity is a… strange inclusion, particularly from a lore perspective where the Humans and Dwarves of the old world were quite friendly towards each other. Having it on the Human side makes the least amount of sense to me and is also fairly redundant. If you’re passing you’re going to want the ball to go between the H-Thrower and H-Catcher due to the pass and catch skills, you’re not really going to be using the D-Runner for that due to lower movement and no Pass to begin with. I’m not really sure why it’s here for any reason other than “because hybrid team” and doesn’t really do anything due to it being passing related. It might come up if you’re handing off to D-Blitzers, but they should be doing other things instead.

Only having 1 of each major positional is interesting, but there’s a lot of choice in this team so I’m not sure if it will matter too much. If there was 2 available then you may as well just play a full Human team anyway. I’d say all 3 of these, plus the Ogre, would make their way into my initial team build, due to getting AG3 and some decent movement on the board, then fill in any gaps in the team with your linemen.

Overall I think that these guys are going to make up the core of the team and will probably be where most of the SPP goes. That single Catcher is definitely going to be your main scoring outlet, so expect him to level up quickly then die because there’s only one of them.

Dwarf Positions

0-2 D-Blocker
0-1 D-Runner
0-1 D-Blitzer
0-1 D-Troll Slayer

Loner. Loner is just…. why is it here? Again from a lore perspective this just makes NO SENSE. They’re old allies, they like and get along with each other! Far more than Skaven and Goblins do! I’m thinking that maybe this was a balancing tool? Maybe without it the team was really strong in playtesting and needed something to keep them in check. I think if it is a balancing tool, it’s too much. No GFI’s, Double Skulls become a problem and it limits them to support roles rather than active roles, which is fine but a little boring, which was already a problem with Dwarves anyway. Either way. so much for them being an Old World Alliance.

With this in mind, I can’t see what use the runners are going to be. They’re just, worse than the H-Thrower and being able to take 2 of them doesn’t help. No pass means no re-rolls and both players have AV8 with the Human having higher movement. Thick Skull won’t come in to play as your throwers shouldn’t be getting hit anyway. Sure you could give him pass and the Loner would be all but negated, but I can’t see any reason to take him over the H-Thrower. Even as a backup runner he’s not great due to being unable to keep up with the human parts of the team and his cost makes him an expensive backup at that.

The Blockers and D-Blitzers are a little better due to block helping make Loner less awful. The Blockers are going to be very much on LOS and Marking duty, always hitting last as well when they can. The D-Blitzer as well will be on more of a support role rather than a full-on blitzing role, something the Human version will be better at as they both have Strength access but I’d be very tempted to take them both. They’ll be useful but far more limited in what they can do compared to normal.

The Troll slayer suffers from loner as well, making them far harder the handle than normal. Frenzy, I think, is going to really be something to think about as you’re increasing your turnover chances by using this piece. You only get one of him which is a little safer than having two of these lads to manage and it’s nice to have that surfing option, but he feels neutered. He maybe makes a decent backline safety while the H-Blitzer performs the key strikes.

I think it’s a shame really, initially, I was quite looking forward to seeing how the two parts of the team worked together, but with the Runner basically redundant and the other guys just less effective, these players are reduced to being played super-safe which makes them quite boring, on players who weren’t exactly high on flair to begin with!

Halfings

0-2 Halfing Hopefuls

They’re bad. Sorry, they just are.

Oh, you want more than that? Well you only get 2 for some reason, they also have Loner (wtf?!) so they’re just absolutely useless. Both the other “linemen” make for better markers and fodder thanks to decent armour and no stunty and the Human ones are cheap enough to replace. They’re slow and can’t keep up with the human half of the team, so are going to, at most be assisting the D-Blockers, which again, the H-Linemen do better.

You also don’t want to throw them. Why? Because of that Nuffle-Damned Loner. The hardest part about Throw Team Mate is the landing oddly as it’s always a 4+ without any skills to help (unless you get AG4 of course but good luck levelling a Loner Halfling!) so you NEED that Team ReRoll. But now if you fail, the landing turns into a 4+ Loner followed by the  4+ Landing which makes it exponentially harder. This is of course, not including the TTM itself and the Ogre’s bone-head.

I love Halflings and I was SUPER excited to have them in another team, but here they’re just a pointless addition to old world alliance and I’d personally never take them, which again, just makes the team less fun. I’m not sure why they decided to nerf (which is what this is) an already very optimistic play into the ground. Bonehead and no Strong Arm already made it far worse compared to a traditional Treeman play, so the addition of Loner just makes the Halfings cheap things that maybe do some marking, but aren’t even very good at that, even with dodge (their only saving grace, but a minor one at that).

I definitely went in with the expectation we’d see something similar to Underworld, where the Halfings would be 0-12, but instead, you can take 2…. yay?

Old World Alliance Summary

Overall I’m a little disappointed with the Old World Alliance team, I was hoping for a cool hybrid team akin to Underworld where you have to manage the two halves. Instead, we’ve just got a worse Human team really backed up by a couple of Dwarves that do… Dwarf things and stand very still because Loner’s a cruel mistress. I didn’t expect or even want a “competitively good” team, but something fun and challenging, but these guys don’t quite cut it for me.

If I were to make a team, I’d try something like

1 x Ogre
1 x Human Blitzer
1 x Human Catcher
1 x Human Thrower
3 x Human Lineman
2 x Dwarf Blocker
1 x Dwarf Blitzer
3 x Rerolls

Then either an Apothecary or 4th Lineman for a total 990k, then look to get the Troll Slayer as the next piece. It’s a bit boring but, I can’t currently see a reason to include the Halflings or Runners. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong once they’re released and we see them on the pitch, I genuinely hope so!

Yeah… I’m not keen on the old world alliance, which is a shame because I want to like them a lot but Loner on half the team just, unfortunately, kills any real fun and enjoyment for me. Oh well at least Snotlings look damn fun and plastic Treemen are FINALLY COMING….SOON MAYBE?!

-Aaron

(Obviously, all opinions stated here are those of myself and do not necessarily reflect those of the other GRUMBBL members, players or staff)