Goblins: Doin' they best hurtin' yo best

[lamaros]

Hello there. This is about goblins and how they can be fun to play and sometimes even win!

Here is the long and short of it:

Goblins aren't great at blood bowl. They are generally considered one of the worst sides, and they often are. All things being equal you will lose far more often than you win. However they are not an auto-loss team, and with a little bit of luck and the right plan they can actually be quite powerful.

If you want to play them in this way and have a decent chance at winning you need to remember what kind of team goblins are. They have cheap bribes, two trolls, a chainsaw, and reasonably cheap players. Goblins are weak and stunty. They are never going to win a game on equal terms. The only way to win is to gain a significant player difference, and the only way to do that is make full use of every tool they have.

Trolls

There are only two trolls, but they are vital to a successful goblin side. They are the only muscle the side has and they have to be used both offensively to damage the opposition, and defensively to protect the weaker goblins.

Block is of course the best skill they could get, followed in my mind by pro. Lacking a double I consider the most important skill to be piling on, significantly improving the troll's ability to get opposition players off the pitch. Break tackle is another useful ability, helping the trolls move when necessary, and providing them with an extra option to break cages. This is often looked poorly upon given the low movement of the trolls, but in my mind it is vital to make the most of any tool to remove other players, and piling on is one of the best available.

Pogoer

This guy carries the ball. If you can get him block or a +AGI then all the better! Make sure he don't get hurt, as without him the ability to get free and score is much more limited. If possible you might make him in to a passing player, though you really don't want to waste too much on skills you won't use.

Looney

This is the most important player in the side. He doesn't really need any skills as they will just make him more expensive.

Fanatic

Don't get him! You need you TV as low and possible and this guy doesn't do enough damage in a single drive to justify his cost or wasting a bribe on him!

Bombadier

Don't get him! You need you TV as low and possible and this guy doesn't do enough damage in a single drive to justify his cost or wasting a bribe on him!

Goblins

The general rule with goblins is that if they don't have any special skill ups after their second then you should fire them and get a new one in its place. I generally agree with this. Block is a great skill to get. +AGI is wonderful. Dirty player is handy to have one one guy (but no other skills). +MV and +AV are a waste of TV. +STR I'm also quite unsure on. I wouldn't take it on a skilled guy unless he already has complementary skills, often the double is more useful and less of a TV addition.

Basic skills worth getting in my mind are: Diving Catch (for recievers), Side Step, and Diving Tackle. Sneaky Git might also be useful, though I am not a huge fan.

Inducements!

Inducements are where goblins win and lose the game. They never ever want to be the same TV as the opposition, generally wanting at least 370k or more, preferably towards 700 is the target. This allows them to get the extra Troll (who is vital, not only because he is strong, but because he's the best goblin launcher for 1TDDs), three bribes, a wizard and a babe or two. If you had the choice you might also want to get the fanatic star, though cyanide has made sure that is not a problem by not including him.

(Will add to this later - bedtime!)

[Kail]

Awesome job so far, thanks!

If you've got the inclination to take questions from the floor, here's a few from me:

How do you keep your chainsaw upright?  I personally get a lot of use out of the spikeball, because he's tough to blitz down, while my chainsaw guy spends the entire match licking the fifty yard line.

The other problem, as I mentioned in the other thread, is that I can't deal with higher TV teams, especially bashy ones.  I generally haven't gotten wizards (or I forget to use them) or babes, so maybe that's the problem, but I generally just find that once my looney is gone, the losses I take make it just about impossible to do anything even if I've got three trolls on the field.

This looks really neat so far, though, thanks for writing it!

[lamaros]

Chainsaw guy is much better against low av teams. You generally want to get the guy who is over extended and then hope you don't fail to knock him down, and then swarm goblins around him so that looney can't get hit in return (or they have to do a risky blitz to do so). Very often this is luck of the draw.

He's great for teams that like to put guys in your backfield.

Against higher av sides he is less useful and you probably want to be using him to foul (he gets his chainsaw bonus on fouls), or to blitz ball carriers if given the option. Against slow sides like Dwarves you aren't really playing a bash game, but are just trying to stall them and get an unstoppable pogoer to run free.

Fanatic can be really useful against slow sides as a drive can last much longer. The only problem is it will really cut into your tv, and unless they are really unlucky is not going to do enough damage to be worth it. That said he can be handy if you arent cutting into your key inducements - and have enough money to hire and fire him as necessary. Really you just want the star though. He is better and much more situationally deployable. I would only recommend a fanatic if you have a league where he would be more useful than not, and if you still have inducements for ripper and bribes.

Goblins win by not letting the other side score, gaining a large player advantage, and running a goal in at the end. You should aim to have as few drives in the game as possible: often electing to not score in the first half but enter the second will 11 players and the other side significantly reduced. This is because you have limited bribes, and it gives their players fewer Ko rolls. Unless your first drive is massively damaging you won't win a high scoring game with goblins.

Unless you get a lot of 1TTDs, that is.

[luckton]

Great read.  You should write up some builds and specifics and submit 'em to BBTactics.  Coach is lacking in all of the specialty Goblins.