Oh, and the whole thing about Snotlings being easy to kill? They're really not. Easier, maybe, but not easy. Insofar as scoring a casualty on a Snotling is concerned, first you need to be able to succeed on your block dice. Normally (and disregarding re-rolls) you'd be able to knock an opposing player down about 87.5% of the time on three block dice (including the times when you roll a Both Down result). However, Snotlings (and virtually every other Stunty player in the game for that matter) have the Dodge skill, which means that, unless you're going into them using a player with the Tackle skill, you can only rely on Both Down and Defender Down results to knock them down, reducing the chance to succeed on three dice to around 70.4%. And that is only if you catch them alone or bring enough assists to get all three dice (fun fact: unless they've taken a lot of casualties, Snotlings are almost always guaranteed to outnumber you on the pitch). These odds drop off rather quickly at 2 dice (75% without dodge, 55.6% with dodge) and at single dice (50% without dodge, 33.3% with dodge). Say we've made that success. Now you have to break the Snotling's armour, which is normally a 6+ on 2d6. Barring Mighty Blow, you're going to get a 72.2% chance just on this dice roll to succeed. With the best case scenario for the block (you rolling three block dice), you have a 50.8% chance of getting to this point successfully (similarly, 40.1% for two block dice and 24.1% for single). And then comes the critical roll to score the casualty: the Injury roll. Against Stunty players and barring Mighty Blow (provided it wasn't already used to break armour), you need a 9+ on 2d6 to inflict a casualty, which nets you a further 27.7% to succeed, bringing your total chance to turn a Snotling into a casualty down to 14.1% at best on three block dice, 11.1% on two dice, or 6.7% on single. Again, these are best case scenarios, which is a big part of the reason why I will continue banging the drum on casualties being the least reliable way to score SPP in all of Blood Bowl. The only counterbalance to it being viable is strictly the volume of attempts you can do in a game, both from regular blocks and the once-per-turn blitz. Stop here if you're just looking for SPP from beating up Snotlings. Spoiler: And now for intent to kill To take it a step further, lasting injuries can only be rolled for if the Injury roll was a 10 or higher (Stunties are automatically Back Next Game on a natural 9), and a Lasting Injury result of Memorable Death is a flat 1 in 8 chance on the d16 barring any niggling injuries. Even with three dice in your favour on the initial block, you don't even have a 2% chance of flat-out killing the Snotling. As for ways of getting better odds of success than that, the Professional Fouler skill grants a player the ability to get SPP for scoring a casualty as part of a Foul. No block dice, just him and the boys jumping someone who's already knocked down, with each unmarked player providing a +1 assist to the Armour roll. Granted, there's no player in the game that comes with the skill when hired for the first time.
On a different note, my local league just wrapped up its play-offs earlier today. To the surprise of no-one, the legacy Greenskins team that's been playing since the first season remain the dynasty champions for the 6th year in a row, though the two play-off-qualified teams I had in the running made a good showing themselves, with my legacy Skaven team taking 3rd place. Afterward, there was a bit of difficulty in trying to determine the hiring cost of each player (both redraft and new) while cost changes were inbound from the new edition (it also didn't help that we'd kind of forgotten how many seasons some players had been around for). To save ourselves the headaches, we opted to forego the usual +20,000gp player re-draft fees for the upcoming season, rather than provide an additional 100,000gp for the total re-draft. On one hand, this means that legacy teams lost a lot of Team Value in the cost of their players and recouped a lot of it into team re-rolls, cheerleaders, assistant coaches, and apothecary (some teams were able to max these out completely and still have upwards of 100,000+gp left over that we wouldn't be able to keep following re-draft), but on the other hand it also meant that all of us could adequately determine the hiring cost of returning players according to the new prices.
Thank you @Bowser those will be very helpful. That puts things into perspective. Nice to see that it isn't nearly as bad as some videos make it out to be. I'd guess that things would be made a bit harder as Snotlings coaches would dodge out of the way with their snotlings many times, reducing the number of block interactions. Leave the blocking to the tougher stuff like the Pump Wagon and Trolls, while sacrificing non-positional snotlings when necessary. Interesting option. Do you feel that the Professional Fouler Skill is one of the better skills (not compared to the big four, but in general) in the game? Many congratulations! Yes-Yes.
Pretty much. It's very easy to laser-focus on the times where a player scores a casualty, but that also has to be taken with the acknowledgement that the odds of you achieving that are very low for each block or blitz you attempt. Therefore, a player designed to be scoring SPP from inflicting casualties is going to be one with skills, characteristics, or traits that either increase the number of times they can block in a turn (i.e. Multiple Block or Frenzy), reduce the difficulty of performing at least part of the block sequence (i.e. higher overall Strength, Dauntless, Claws, Horns, or Mighty Blow), mitigate the effects of Both Down results (i.e. Block) or the Block or Dodge skills (i.e. Brawler, Juggernaut, or Tackle), or simultaneously inflicts casualties by other means while bypassing a roll that they would otherwise have to make (i.e. Arm Bar, Lethal Flight, Professional Fouler, or Violent Innovator). Note that with that last point there are also some skills and traits like Prehensile Tail, Bombardier, Chainsaw, Dirty Player, and Stab that can either benefit from such skills in tandem or otherwise help make the relevant rolls much more likely to succeed. As mentioned in my non-exhaustive list above, Professional Fouler is one of the better ones for sure, particularly for players with access to the Devious skill set (which happens to include most Stunty players in the game). While the actual Foul action requires some set-up (the player being fouled must already be knocked down or stunned) and there is some risk of the fouling player getting ejected if they roll a double, it goes straight to the Armour roll, removing the uncertainty of block dice from the equation, and, against players without the Iron Hard Skin skill, you can get bonuses to that Armour roll from adjacent unmarked friendly players. I'll even add that putting a big guy or important opposing player into the KO or casualty box near the beginning of the game is typically one of the best actions any team (but especially Stunty teams) can take in order to win games, and being able to get SPP from fouling the bastard rather than risking a bad block roll to do so makes for a nice bonus and incentive. Other skills in a similar vein include Arm Bar (a Strength skill that procs on failed dodge rolls, and pairs well with Tackle, Shadowing and Prehensile Tail), Lethal Flight (a Devious skill that requires the Right Stuff trait to take, but also grants a +1 bonus to your choice of either armour roll or injury roll should the player with it land on an opposing team's player), and Violent Innovator (if it involves a Special Action that can cause casualties like Stab, Bombardier, Ball & Chain, or Chainsaw, you can gain SPP as if you blocked instead).
I don't see this skill very often on players, it must be pretty rare. I've seen some Chaos Dwarfs blockers with it and I'm sure there must be a few more, but not too many. Looks like a pretty neat skill for resilience when the player has a great AV. What are your thoughts on Bombardier? I see that the Snotlings have access to two of them for only 30k each. Are they worth it? Are they the best positionals that the Snotlings have access to after the Pump Wagons and Trolls?
I don't know. We've got you posting Blood Bowl pictures now. That sounds like phase 2! Pretty soon (hopefully) you'll have a team of your own!
The problem with mutation access is that there's so many great choices, but Iron Hard Skin makes those Chaos Dwarfs super annoying for werewolves, chainsaws and even just mighty blow guys. Makes them incredibly hard to kill. But only really pairs well if armour is already high. I do like the Fungus flingas, or any bomber really. Bombs do tend to have a good field control effect, whether they're trying or stay out of range, or get into blitzing range to kill your bomber! They're my favorite after the trolls and the pump wagons, and with primary passing access they can become downright terrifying if you can get them up a few SPP. Assuming they live long enough to get there, they really need good positioning and protection.
Yeah, Chaos Dwarf Blockers are the only players in the game that start with Iron Hard Skin. As @Bowser can attest to, it's a really good Mutation skill when it comes to annoying those players designed to get bonuses to the Armour roll, but it mostly benefits players that are at least AV 9+. If it's anything lower, a player trying to succeed on the Armour roll is practically getting the benefit of Claws and then some anyway without needing the skill at all. I'd say they're worth it. Like all Stunty teams, Snotlings need all the advantages they can get to win a game, and if that means throwing a few bombs here and there to knock opposing players down, then by all means include them in your team draft. Same with your Stilty Runnas and Fun-Hoppas, who are the most likely players on your team to score touchdowns in tandem with your trolls throwing them (provided the trolls don't try to eat them instead).
As my strong arm troll is called Crak, and my current doom diver is Grumbleberry 3, there is some trust issues. Though by all accounts the first two Grumbleberrys were delicious!
I'm happy to hear that! I guess that explains why I couldn't think of anybody else with the skill. How would you rank those three positionals (Fungus Flinga, Stilty Runna and Fun Hoppa) in terms of effectiveness/worth? Easy come, easy go!
That's entirely dependent on their role. Fungus Flingas are not just crowd control, but also a means of making openings in your opponent's line. It's not necessarily important for them to gain SPP, but when they do they can be a force to be reckoned with. Stilty Runnas and Fun Hoppas are two sides of the same coin as ball carriers, really. One has the benefit of being able to jump over players to get to where it needs to be and do what it needs to do, the other is built to stick the landing when thrown by a big guy for much the same benefit. As the ones most likely on the team to score touchdowns (and Fun Hoppas being the most likely to get SPP from successfully landing after being thrown), you can expect these guys to advance very quickly compared to your other players.