Having played multiple trial games with them and had my first match of the season, Necromantic Horror has been a very interesting change from humans. I still have to adapt to the opponent, of course; against Khorne, Talyssa and Orson have to be kept away from Valkia (their Bloodspawn Big Guy representing the coach herself refusing to sit on the sidelines and coming out to collect blood and skulls) because she’s got S5, Claws, and Mighty Blow and so their huge armor value won’t protect them at all. But I’ve got a much more distinct gameplan than I did as the eminently adaptable Sheriffs. Lacking a passing game also changes offense completely.
One of the common strategies in Blood Bowl is known as ‘caging’, where you put units on the corners of the ball carrier to ensure that anyone trying to blitz them has to dodge and is facing many Assists, then try to advance up the field with that. As the Sheriffs, I almost never formed a full 5 unit cage. I generally screened, tied up enemies with blitzers, and prepared for passing and dodging and handoffs to breakaway and get distance on the enemy with a stretch play. I had the tools to move the ball between units very easily, between having plentiful (and cheap) Rerolls and a lot of ‘reroll’ skills (stuff like Dodge, Pass, and Catch, where you get to reroll a failed roll once per turn). Thus, my offense often relied on moving the ball so far past my opponent’s line and with a screen of fast units covering the carrier from the back that they couldn’t catch whichever Kintzler Brother was making a break for it this time.
As the Spare Parts, I can’t do that. You’d be a bit surprised; my ball carriers have the same movement as the units I used as scorers as the Sheriffs. But A: I can’t pass (absolutely no-one on Necromantic Horror likes throwing the ball) and B: Handoffs are extremely risky when I already had to make a 3+ to get the ball, without Sure Hands to reroll it freely like I could with Friedrich and Dree and then I have to make another to hand it off, and I only have 2 Team Rerolls per half because Undead generally pay the highest cost for RRs. I have to hold onto those for critical moments to prevent turnovers, stop Bogdan from tripping on the holes he dug when he’s GFIing, make sacks, etc. I can’t take the same risks routinely I did as the Sheriffs because they weren’t risks. Let’s look at the probability of a stretch play between the two teams. Say I want Regina to pick up the ball, run 6 tiles forward, and handoff to Bogdan so he can scurry. She rolls 3+ to pick up the ball; 66.66% chance. She moves. She hands off to Bogdan. 66.66% chance he grabs it. I make that play 4 times out of 9. Less than a 50-50 chance total, and if something goes wrong *either stage* I lose the ball and Turnover. As the Sheriffs, I’d have had a reroll on both those points from skills, making each 89% likely to succeed overall. So 80% or so odds to have the stretch play work out. And, of course, once Dree had Accurate and the Kintzlers had Diving Catch, I could throw 6 more tiles at 2+ with a Reroll to throw, 2+ with a reroll to catch and it was actually safer than handing off (and got Dree an SPP!). Even before that, it only added a ‘little’ friction to make a 6 tile throw (3++, to 3++, to 3++ to pick up, throw 6 tiles, and catch with base units) and was still more likely than the play above with Bogdan and Regina. And with that I’d be able to move the ball a whopping 22 tiles in one turn, without even using my handoff as well as my pass. Regina and Bodgan would ‘only’ get it about 16 at best. And it’s 13 tiles from the Line of Scrimmage to the End Zone, for reference.
Basically, I could elf my way out of range of my opponent if they weren’t keeping enough back as safeties. And I had enough punch to force people to commit to the line some. But I just don’t have those options as Necromantic. I have fast units! I have great fast units. But I have to play the ground game instead on offense, and many of my abilities are more defense oriented. The ghosts, for instance, cannot pick up the ball. They don’t have hands! How they tackle people, we don’t know. How they get tackled? Mysterious. Spooky. Still, that means my basic ‘blitzers’ can’t handle the ball, despite being Agi 3+. What they can do is provide cover from the ball carrier, since they’re still average speed and can mostly keep up. I also have to cover Bogdan because he is A: A precious boy who must not come to harm and B: Relatively vulnerable. He’s picked up Block, but Block isn’t often a defensive skill since a Both Down on a unit without Block means a Turnover, so players will rarely take Both Down when they’re throwing a 2 die block (roll 2, pick which one you want). It’s a very different, slower offense, despite being quite fast. A drive that’s going smoothly usually takes 4 turns to score. As humans, I could very much score in two turns (or one, if the hobbits were thrown properly) and 3 turns to even or win a match when I was receiving was pretty generous. To score in three as Necromantic would take some serious risks.
The big place they’re a joy to play is defense. They have a much stronger defense than the humans, because both my blocker/blitzer basics have skills that mess with the enemy pushing them. Talyssa and Orson are both S4, which is great for capping my line so that my opponent can’t just put down one more lineman and try to set up a bunch of 2dbs by getting local advantage and shoving, but they’re also Stand Firm. If I don’t want them to be pushed back, even if they’re knocked over, they aren’t pushed back. Mihaela and Elizabeta the ghosts have Sidestep and Block, so even if they’re pushed, I get to choose where they go and they may actually reposition favorably rather than being shoved out of the way. They also have Foul Appearance (because they are spooky) and enemies have a 1-6 chance of being spooked out of blocking or blitzing them at all, effectively giving enemies a minor negatrait like a Big Guy. Between Stand Firm and Sidestep, I can safely position those units on the sidelines, too; because they either can’t be moved or I can dictate where they’re moved, they can’t be shoved into the crowd and taken out of the drive (and possibly hurt). The zombies are ‘bad’, but they’re cheap, still Str 3, still AV 9+ (average ‘decent’ armor, 28% chance to be broken on a knockdown) and have Regen (50-50 odds to be put into reserve and come back next drive if they’re wounded). Combined with the Golems, I can gum up a bunch of an enemy line and leave things for Bogdan and the Ghouls to scamper and shark around the pitch on defense. In fact, this is so much the case that except against Khorne (where this would set me up to get hit first and I don’t want that) I will generally choose to kick off rather than receive in the first half if I win the coin toss. Necromantic’s defense is very strong, and a lot of fun to play.
The units also have a lot of personality to them, which made writing characters and a concept for them easy and fun. The big, tough Golems presenting brick walls, the spooky and tricksy ghosts, the endearingly terrible speedbump zams, the agile but fragile ghouls, and Bogdan, Bane of the Begonias are all units with different, distinct roles on the pitch. I’ve also found that I’m paying a lot for potential as Necromantic; Bogdan, for instance, is a little unreliable at first (which is why I am sure to praise him when he is a Good Boy) but with Agi and General Primary, 8 movement, Claws, and Regen? He’s a star in the making. I desperately need to make money to get my second woof and then another reroll (and replace anyone who dies, if it should come to that) but the squad really fits their fluff. They’re a bunch of weirdos who have resorted to football and necromancy fraud (Coach Katerina WILL learn and I will EVENTUALLY make a Regen roll, damnit!) to make their way in the world, climbing the ladder with no initial fanbase as a bunch of unknowns trying to throw their talents into this new venture. In time, units like the Golems will have things like Block and Guard (hopefully). The Ghosts will get Guard or save up and grab Dodge and become Ungovernable. Bogdan will get his buddy out of the pound. The zombies…well, they’ll always be zombies, but one might get kick or something, I’d like Kick. The Ghouls will learn to handle the ball properly (if I can get Regina Sure Hands, she could dodge in, grab it with her Big Hand on 3++ no matter the marking, then swoop out with a 3++ with Dodge into empty space!). They could become heroes of the gridiron, if they can make it out of poverty and begin the climb.
Night's Ham Stock 