Fabulander
Joined: Oct 11, 2014
|
  Posted:
Jan 27, 2015 - 21:35 |
 
|
NB: This is an idea for a house rule that might be implemented in a table top league, so if you fell that this idea is threatening to your winning streak with that super exciting CPOMB team, rest assured that I have no intention of curbing your online massacres. It's not gonna happen on fumbbl, I am only looking for honest opinions and guesses on how this might actually affect the game, for better or worse.
So. In the endless discussions of how broken CPOMB is or isn't, it is generally the case that the complete stack is seen as overpowered, and that Piling On is such a safe bet that it is practically always best to use the skill. On the other hand, any nerf is also seen as giving an unfair advantage to blodging agility teams (or orcs/dwarfs, depending on whether you nerf PO or Claw) and detracting from the general violence of the game, and each skill does have it's own place and use in terms of fluff and team design. Mighty Blow is beautifully simple, and provides a necessary boost to teams that rely on casualties. Claw is necessary to keep heavily armoured teams from completely dominating, and seems fitting on the dangerous mutant killer teams. Piling On is graphic, funny and should be effective, since you sacrifice movement for hurting power. So you want the skills, you want them to be good, but you don't want them to be quite as good all together as they currently are.
Among the many attempts to nerf/fix the killstack, I personally prefer Plasmoids NTBB nerf, which states that claw and Mighty Blow don't stack on armour rolls, and Piling On only works on injury rolls, thus forcing the attacker to make some slightly more difficult choices. This is good and simple, and if good and simple is what you wan't from a house rule then look no further. CPOMB will still get taken and it will still be good, but not quite as good and not as risk free.
Nevertheless, I would propose this alternative solution, because I think it is funny, fitting, and might stir things up and present experienced coaches with new options and challenges. This house rule is solely a revision of the Piling On skill, which separates it from the killstack but gives it a new kind of usefulness on its own, leaving the Claw teams with their special 2-skill comboing advantage intact while making Piling On a specialist skill for a different type of killer.
Here is my first draft for a new skill text:
Piling On (Strength)
The player may use this skill whenever he has been involved in a block or blitz and is standing adjacent to his opponent who has been Knocked Down. After the block has been resolved, he may attempt to flatten the prone player by throwing himself on top of him, giving him an extra chance to hurt the opponent but also risking injury himself. When using the skill, make a new armour roll for the prone player with the following modifiers: If the player who is Piling On is stronger than the prone player, add +1 to the armour roll; if the player is at least twice as strong as the prone player, add a further +1 to the armour roll. Piling On always adds a basic +1 to both armour and injury rolls, and in addition, if the prone player was already Stunned then he is completely defenceless, so the Piling On player may add a further +1 to the armour and injury roll. The Piling On player is placed prone in his own square – he is assumed to have rolled back there after flattening his opponent. If he failed to break the armour of his victim then he may have hurt himself instead, so make an armour roll and subsequent injury roll for the Piling On player with no modifiers. Piling On in your own turn will only cause a turnover if the Piling On player was holding the ball, or if he was injured. Piling On happens after the block is resolved, so no other blocking skills or modifiers are used and no star player points will be awarded for casualties resulting from Piling On.
You got all that? Good.
The idea is to create a whole new type of foul that takes place immediately after a block, but instead of risking being sent off, the player risks his own safety by recklessly body slamming his opponent in a suicidal attempt to cause further damage. It certainly fits the fluff, since elbows aren't Claws and Mighty Blow is for punching, and you really can't block someone on the ground anyway. This rule makes the skill interesting for big, tough players even before they have gained any other blocking skills, so it could take effect earlier in the team development, but on the other hand it is not very conductive to future player development (or long term survival). A Piling On Black Orc is very dangerous after just a few skills. He won't get many spp's, and he'll likely die young, but he is also easy to rebuild, and will help remove many opponents from the pitch. Also, the skill can serve defensively as a deterrent, since it can now take effect in the opponents turn. Gathering assists and risking a 1 dice block against a Treeman is less appealing if you risk an armour roll with +4 and injury with +2 modifiers on your star blitzer. In general, this house rule is a new way of generating casualties that favours big, strong teams and especially Big Guys, but is not well suited for use by valuable, highly developed super blitzers, and presents some serious consideration of risk vs. reward. The possibility of a turnover means that it is not a skill to build a drive around (unless a Wardancer really has to die), but its high effectiveness will make it tempting for secondary blocks late in the turn. Double-rolling elf blitzers can still make use of the skill, but it is now much, much more risky, and won't work as well as it would on stronger players.
On a large scale, I could imagine this house rule having the following effects:
A slight nerf on mutation (CPOMB) oriented killer teams.
A major boost for the usefulness of lone Big Guys, especially Ogres and Trolls.
A slight nerf on S3 Dwarfs, perhaps, but then again, Claw is now somewhat less of a threat.
A new and tempting option for teams like Orcs, Lizardmen and Chaos, who have plenty of strong, well armoured players who can gain Piling On early, but also a nerf on stacking of skills on their super blitzers.
A serious boost and a new source of destructive fun for stunty team Big Guys, especially Ogres.
A risky but powerful option for Mummies and Tomb Guardians.
Balance- and agility teams might see less of the infamous insane blitzing CPOMB threats, but will now have to contend with the new defensive role of Piling On in their own turns.
Killstack blitzers could usually pick out any valuable player in range to deliberately destroy, but that seems less likely with this house rule because of the turnover risk. Instead, strength teams might use mass blocking and chain blocking with less developed players to potentially cause heavy damage, making positioning more important but also freeing up the blitzers, who can now occasionally be used for other stuff than killing, like getting the ball. Also, grinding the opponents team into the ground is, perhaps, even easier now, but also much riskier, making extreme forms of bash-stalling a less stable tactic. With this version of Piling On, if you knock a player over you must consider whether or not you really need him off the pitch at the risk of hurting yourself, which would limit the 'spite casualties' a bit. In other words, you can kill a lot of players, but you might not want to kill a lot of players 'just because'. Unlike getting sent of for late-game-fouling, which has no long term effect, slaughtering opponents for fun might cost you your turn and even your player, and won't get you any spp's. Note that you absolutely can combine this skill with other blocking and damaging skills to create an absolute monster, but it would be an extreme investment in a very risky player.
What do you guys think? Am I missing a huge design flaw that will make Slann rule the known universe, or could this be a fun and fairly well balanced idea?
By the way, hi! This is my first thread here. I don't really play blood bowl online, only TT, but I enjoy reading the forums and especially the rules discussions. |
|
|
Purplegoo
Joined: Mar 23, 2006
|
| Posted:
Jan 27, 2015 - 21:42 |
|
Hello there, welcome to FUMBBL!
We have a thread into which all ClawPOMB discussion is funnelled lest it take over the known universe. Please bring this up there. Many thanks! |
|
|
War Drums?
Search
