Humans, the most vanilla and unexciting race in Blood Bowl! For many years one of the default teams in any Blood Bowl set, the Humans have recently been usurped by their wealthier and snootier cousins, the Imperial Nobles. But as one of the most solid and flexible teams in the game, the good old humans still have plenty to offer. Let me be your guide to everything the race of man has to offer.
Pros
- Lots of starting skills make them a strong team out of the box
- Extremely flexible team builds and skill development options
- A true hybrid team able to adjust their approach in game to combat their opponents’ style
Cons
- Lack a single strong gameplan
- Lack strength and resilience to go toe-to-toe with nastier opponents
- Catchers can be easy targets for opponents
The Roster
Thrower
We’ll start with one of the best players on the team. The Human Thrower got a little glow-up in BB20, moving to PA2+, which immediately put it among the best raw passers in the game. The Thrower also comes with the ultimate comfort skill, Sure Hands, which makes it the perfect piece to pick up the ball and start your drive. One Human Thrower is absolutely mandatory in any human roster.
Skill Choices: Leader, Accurate, Block, Dodge
Blitzer
The next positional is another of your pivotal players and one of the most solid pieces in the game. Human Blitzers have the winning combination of a great base statline, start with Block, and have both General and Strength access for Primary skills, giving them a wealth of development options. Taking all four is also mandatory.
Skill Choices: Guard, Mighty Blow, Tackle, Dodge
Catcher
Human Catchers are extremely versatile pieces. Not only does their great MA and Catch skill give them an obvious role in your passing game, but they also have great potential as ball-sackers and botherers, and even as foulers!
Their downside is obvious; at ST2 and AV8+ they are the most vulnerable Humans on the roster, so simply running them downfield like an NFL wide Receiver will see them quickly removed. A classic scoring Catcher only needs Block, Sidestep, and maybe Sprint for extreme movement potential – this also makes them very legitimate one-turn scorers.
For their alternate roles, you can leverage their very high mobility to attack or mark the ball with skills like Wrestle, Tackle, Diving Tackle, and Sidestep. A final possible use of Catchers is foulers using the Sneaky Git skill. With the recent nerf to this skill that prevents a post-foul move, this has become a lot less palatable option as it will potentially expose your Catchers to hits.
Skill Choices:
Scorer: Sprint, Sidestep, Block
Ball-Hawk: Wrestle, Tackle, Strip Ball, Sidestep, Diving Tackle
Lineman
An extremely versatile value piece, the humble Human lino can fulfill a huge variety of roles. They can be quickly built into utility pieces, like foulers and kickers, with just one skill, while adding Block or Wrestle immediately makes them strong pieces on both sides of the ball.
Skill Choices:
All-rounder: Block or Wrestle, Tackle, Guard
Utility: Dirty Player, Kick
Halfling
A new addition to the roster in BB20, the Halfling adds a cheap option that can contribute to the team in several ways. Most obviously, the Halfling lets Humans try to score one-turn TD’s with Throw Team-mate.
The Halfling also has great potential as a cheap fouler, with access to Sneaky Git on Primary.
Skill Choices:
Scorer: Catch, Sprint, Sidestep
Fouler: Sneaky Git
Ogre
The Human Big Guy is appropriately one of the most well-rounded and reliable(ish). Bonehead is one of the best negatraits as it doesn’t require any baby-sitting by other players. ST5 and Mighty Blow do exactly what you expect them to do, while AV10+ and Thick Skull help to keep them around. The Ogre will mostly act to anchor your lines on both sides of the ball, capable of tying up and hurting opponents in equal measure.
When levelling up, it is almost always worth saving for Block if you have a chance to get it. Brawler is a poor relative, but will still give value.
Skill Choices: Block, Guard, Stand Firm, Brawler
Star Players
Humans have access to one of the best pools of stars with Old World Classic. It is packed with good value, high impact players, like Griff Oberwald, The Mighty Zug, and Karla Von Kill. Grombrindal is also a fantastic utility piece that boosts those around him, and other players like Cindy Piewhistle, Deeproot, Skrorg Snowpelt, and Ivar Eriksson are also strong players worth consideration.
Tactics and Playstyle
Human flexibility means that often their playstyle will be determined by what they come up against. When facing bashier opponents they tend to pivot to a more agility-based style, and when facing weaker opponents they can be more aggressive and hunt them.
The first scenario will probably be more common, meaning typically Humans will not want to base opponents up heavily, but instead pick targets carefully to try and pick off with the Blitzers. It will be hard for bashy teams to outmaneuver Humans, so you can play a screening game and restrict them to very few blocks each turn. That said, with good armour values across the board, and the strength of the Ogre, humans certainly can still base up opponents when the time is right.
Offensively, your Thrower to Catcher connection will be an ever-present option, but you also have strong movement across your Blitzer group, so you have lots of options if you want to make a strong breakaway with multiple players.
On both sides of the ball it is very likely you will need to make a habit of 3+ dodges. Don’t be afraid of this option, because it is a real strength of the team, but do respect your Re-roll count and know when to accept failures.
As mentioned previously, the long range of Catcher movement means Humans can score one-turn Touchdowns with it, so it’s worth knowing how. And Humans now have a second method of doing so with the Ogre-Halfling connection, so bear in mind both of these possibilities.
Starting Team Builds
League Play
As with all teams with expensive big guys, you have to make a choice as to whether you want to start with one or not. Personally I would, as the Ogre adds control, damage, and helps your durability from the start.
Starting League team w/Ogre:
- 1 x Ogre
- 1 x Thrower
- 2 x Catcher
- 4 x Blitzer
- 3 x Linemen
- 3 x Team Re-Roll
- 1 x Dedicated Fans
This is 1m GC on the nose and gives you all your key positionals, a great selection of skills, and the ability to play to all the strengths of the human team right away. Starting with two Catchers is certainly not mandatory, so you can replace one with a lineman and more Dedicated Fans to have a slightly more durable gold-earning starting roster
If you prefer more bodies, you can drop the Ogre and go with something like:
- 1 x Thrower
- 2 x Catcher
- 4 x Blitzer
- 5 x Linemen
- 3 x Team Re-Roll
This gives you twelve players, and 50k spare that you can spend on DF, an Apo, or save for the Ogre (but investing in DF is probably better for that anyway).
League Development
If you start with the Ogre build, then extra bodies and the Apothecary are the only things missing. Bodies are probably better, so adding at least one lineman and then a Halfling should be your priority. If you started without the Ogre then that will be your main target. A second Thrower and a fourth Re-Roll are good longer-term options for all builds. A human roster sits comfortably at around 13 or 14 players for short-term league play.
Tournament Builds
As Humans are relatively cheap, they have quite a few options for Tourney builds. This is a good base for tourney packs around the 1.1m GC mark:
- 1 x Ogre
- 1 x Thrower
- 2 x Catcher
- 4 x Blitzer
- 3 x Linemen
- 1 x Halfling
- 3 x Team Re-Roll
This comes in at 1070, so you can add another Hafling or a Coach for 1.1m tourneys, and the same plus an Apo at 1.15m, or another Thrower.
If you fancy going the Star players route, then the following is a flexible option at 1.2m:
- Either Karla or Zug
- 1 x Ogre
- 1 x Thrower
- 2 x Catcher
- 4 x Blitzer
- 3 x Linemen
- 1 x Halfling
- 2 x Team Re-Roll
Our only sacrifice here is a Re-roll. At lower tourney values, you will probably have to give up the second Catcher to fit a 200k-ish star. But players like Cindy can be bolted on to virtually any tourney build that allows it.
Tournament Skills
Priority for skills in tourney builds will be the Blitzers and Ogre. If you have any opportunity to take Block on the Ogre you should. Some combination of Guard, Mighty Blow, and Tackle should be spread around the Blitzers, and if you can stack skills then MB/T is fantastic.
Catchers can be given Block as a good all-purpose skill, but again, if stacking is allowed, they can look to some of the earlier-discussed combos to turn them into specialists.
The Thrower can be given Block for utility, or Leader for an extra Re-roll (which might allow you to drop RR’s from your main build and find extra value there), but don’t feel the need to put a skill on him.
Block or Wrestle on a lineman is always a good value choice, and a single Dirty Player or Kicker can also add a lot.
Conclusion
Depending on tournament format, Humans normally find themselves in Tier 1 or 2, more commonly the latter. That means they see a good selection of skills, and are always a competitive team. I see Humans as a true Tier 2 team that are strong competitively, but not quite good enough at any one thing to reliably be amongst the very best in the game.
If you have questions, comment, feedback, or ideas for our Blood Bowl coverage, drop us a line at contact@goonhammer.com
