So I've sat in on at least a few of the new player games this season, and I've been seeing a lot of the very common new player mistakes being made. As a result I compiled a list here of some basic tips that new players might not be aware of, as well as a list of articles that are
very good reads (seriously, I spent most of my first season losing horribly, and I got loads better after just having looked at some of these articles). Hopefully these should at least help out our new players, I'll put the tips first, and then the articles in order of importance. Read them, skim them, push your head against the screen in hopes of absorbing their knowledge, but at least look at them, it's a huge help.
Important things new players might not know (in no particular order):
1) When you make a block the yellow without the exclamation is the best. Block means that if you have a "both down" result you won't get knocked over (but your opponent will if they don't also have Block), Dodge means that any yellow with the exclamation mark's against you get turned into pushes (and therefore don't knock you down). Tackle cancels dodge if your opponent has it.
2) Rolling a 1 always fails. Rolling a 6 always succeeds.
3) Dodging needs an AGI roll. The amount you need to roll for an AGI roll is determined by 7 - AGI + Number of tackle zones(+1 under certain situations as Kanil outlines below). If it's for a pass/catch it's the number of tackles zones the player is currently standing, where for dodges it is the number on the spot they are dodging into. The key note is that dodging into tackle zones (or attempting many other AGI things while standing in tackle zones) raises the chance of you failing pretty drastically.
4) Failing just about anything ends your turn. As such you always want to do things in order of most likely to succeed->least likely. In addition there will come a point where the chance of knocking yourself over is so likely that the damage you could do to yourself is greater than the damage you could do to them. Stop doing things at this point.
5) Way amount of dice you hit with is calculated: (Hitter STR + your assists - enemy assists) ~ Their STR. "Your assists" is +1 for each guy you have next to the target that doesn't have another enemy next to them, and "their assists" is anybody next to the hitter that doesn't have another guy on your team next to them. If your total is greater than their STR you get 2 dice, if it is the same you get 1 die, and if it is less you roll 2 dice, but they get to chose which one you use.
6) You can't blitz and then throw the ball with the same guy in the same turn.
7) Handoffs always succeed on the throw and give a +1 to the catch roll. This means that even if your guy is 1 AGI and in tons of enemy tackle zones he can still do a handoff as long as the guy he's giving the ball to can catch it (an AGI roll like I mentioned above).
8) Go into the options menu and check the list of skills that get used automatically. While most skills you will always want to use, there are a handful you will want to be asked about sometimes. My personal list basically has all skills set to be used automatically except:
Stand Firm - Sometimes you might want to be pushed (what if they are all grouped around you to foul you?)
Wrestle - Sometimes it's better to knock both you and your opponent down (therefore ending their turn) rather than just wrestling you both down to the ground.
9) Pushing people off the field automatically breaks their armor and removes them until the end of the drive, but doesn't give you SPP for the casualty.
10) You can only use 1 reroll per turn, which means you can play a little bit more crazy at the end if you have more rerolls than you have turns.
11) If someone scores at the end of the first/second half and you still have one turn left. With many teams you aren't going to be able to reliably do a 1 turn TD (or you might be 2 points behind). In the event you can't, your best bet is to do this:
- Hit them as many times as you can on the line of scrimmage
- Move a person to stand right next to the ball
- Pick up the ball with another person, then click the "pass" button (the ball with the arcing arrow) and pass to the person standing next to you. Completed passes give the thrower +1 SPP, so it ensures the turn wasn't absolutely worthless.
- End your turn. Caging up on the very last turn of the half/game just wastes time, the field resets after halftime anyways.
Essential articles to read:
One Die Blocks (When to do them, When to not)Very helpful articles to read:
Cage BasicsCage Breaking2-1 Grind (If you are a bashy team)Moderately helpful articles to read:
Marking PlayersRerollsKicking or Receiving2-1 Grind (If you are a elfy team)Helpful if you are playing/playing against the listed team
How to Beat ElvesHow to Beat DwarvesHelpful when your players level up:
Player level up guides (Except Khorne Daemons, I have a different guide for them if you need it)While playing Blood Bowl still requires at least some experience to fully get the game down, you can get a huge leg up on experienced players (or experienced players can become even more so) by checking out those articles. I even still usually skim the "How to Beat X" articles right before playing against one of those teams, or review some of the other articles if I'm having trouble against a particular strategy. BBtactics also has some nifty percentage tables for various things (like block roll chances) that are very helpful to have open during a game as well.
It might seem like a lot to take in, but read those and your season will be that much more enjoyable, I guarantee it.