Describe MalalT2020 here.

Malal Teams

• This roster may only include 1 Big Guy in the team at a time.

• Really Stupid trait is rolled first, before Take Root is rolled.

Player Pics


Player Icons
Renegades

Beast of Malal


Background
Throughout The World the power of Chaos grew. First warriors of Chaos formed teams aligned to their gods, next Daemons of Chaos were sent forth and the stranglehold the 4 Gods of Chaos had over the game became immeasurable. But as they grew in strength so did another power, a power in The Warp that was long forgotten… Malal had returned.

The Renegade God's followers started appearing throughout The World once more. They came bearing the symbol of Malal; a skull, half black, half white. Marauders and Warriors started defecting from their Chaos gods, pledging allegiance to Malal. The God of Malice had never had such power, his influence and control cast wide throughout The World, his fate and strength tied to the 4 Gods of Chaos.

As Malal’s power grew he sent forth his Greater Daemons and it did not take long before Bloodbowl teams devoted to Malal made their presence know. They cared not for winning or losing. Their sole purpose - to destroy all followers of Chaos and reap their souls for Malal.

Rationale
First and foremost, the Background is pretty much a copy and paste of the Daemons of Malal Team Background. Garion, did a wonderful job of explaining who Malal was, and the resources that he gave in his Rationale of the team, lead me down a rabbit hole about Malal, and making him tied to first place beside Nurgle, of being one of my favourite Chaos God.

When I tried looking to see if FUMBBL had a Malal Team of Chaos followers for the 2020 rules, I seen that they were unable to be used because of a special rule, and was unable to look at the team roster. When I went back to the 2016 team, I was able to see the team Roster and what the special rule was all about. After reading the team a few times and the special rule, I got this feeling that this team is missing something, and sure they might look weak on paper, but with the special rule that the original creators of Garion and Harvestmouse gave them, the Malal team can be overpowered after one game if all the stars align just right and the dice gods are rolling in their favour, and that could be after their first game played.

So, I decided to take the challenge of taking the original foundation that was created by Garion and Harvestmouse, comparing notes and references about Malal, and looking at the other 4 non Daemons versions of the Chaos Gods Teams from GW resources (Nurgle and the little amount that they gave out of the new Khorne Team coming out) and from the FUMBBL Secret Teams (Khorne, Slaanesh and Tzeentch) and see how I can make the Malal Team feel like them, but having their own different play style to represent Malal properly on the Bloodbowl pitch.

0-16 Renegades, 6/3/3+/5+/8+, Skills - Decay, Thick Skull, GS on a Normal, A on a Double, Price 50k

I basically kept this as the same from the original Malal Team that was on here, the only things that I changed was to give them a passing stat, skills of Decay and Thick Skull, as looking at the reference on the Realm of Chaos 80’s Form about Malal, it just seem fitting, for Malal to gift his followers a exoskeleton skull, to stay in the fight, however for a price that their life force slowly drains away for the Chaos God of Destruction, hence why they have the Decay Skill. As for Skill, they have access to General and Strength skills on a Normal, as they are more focus of destruction for Malal, and Agility on a Double.

0-4 Malagors, 6/3/3+/4+/9+, Skills - Horns, Decay, Thick Skull, Iron Hard Skin, GS on a Normal, AP on a Double, Price 85k

As with any of the Chaos Teams, they usually have 0-4 Beastman and 0-4 Chaos Warrior Positions for the team roster. With the original Malal Team, it was missing these, so I added them in. First we’ll look at the Beastmen, which I called Malagors. They pretty much have the same stats as all the other Beastmen position (mostly the Khorngors). With Skills, Horns is a generic Beastman trait. Decay, as Malal, slowly steals the soul and life force away from his followers, but offers them Thick Skull, and Iron Hard Skin, based around the drawing of the Daemons of Malal by Tony Ackland, that they are all insect like, so it make sense that Malal will give that, along side with Thick Skull to selected followers (the Beastmen, and Chaos Warriors), just to make them more resilient to stay into the fight. As for Skill access, like the Renegades General and Strength on a Normal, and Agility on a Double, but they do have access to Passing on a double as well, as they are somewhat here to play a game. As for price, I figured 85k would be a fair price of what a Malagor offers.

0-4 Malal Warriors, 5/4/4+/6+/10+, Skills - Decay, Thick Skull, Iron Hard Skin, Dauntless, GS on a Normal, A on a Double, Price 120k

Again, like I mentioned for the Malagors, a Chaos Team dedicated to a Chaos God, should have at least 0-4 Beastmen and 0-4 Chaos Warriors, and that what was lacking in the original Malal team, now we’ll get into the Malal Warriors. Again, nothing special with the stats, just a copy and paste of the Bloodseekers stats from the Khorne team (I’ll tell you the reason for that real soon). As for skills, the same Decay, Thick Skull and Iron Hard Skin, for all dedicated followers to the God of Destruction, but I wanted to add an additional skill to make them feel different from Khorne. In one of the Tony Ackland’s interview done by Realm of Chaos 80’s, Tony made a comment “One way to look at is that Khorne is WW2 Wehrmacht, Malal is WW2 SS.” I wanted to make the Malal Warriors have that feel, and originally I was going to give them Mighty Blow (+1), but after revisiting the skills, Dauntless felt better suited than Mighty Blow (+1). It gives the feeling that the Malal Warriors, have no fear standing toe to toe to anyone, no matter how big or small the opponent is, and willing to do whatever it takes to take them out, or die trying. Like the Renegades, same skill access, and price 120k, as if feel like they need to be a bit pricey for what they offer in return.

0-1 Beast of Malal, 6/5/5+/-/9+, Skills -Loner (5+), Animal Frenzy, Regeneration, Stab, No Hands, Thick Skull, Iron Hard Skin, Foul Appearance, Sure Feet, S on a Normal, AG on a Double, Price 140k

Same as the Renegades Linemen, I mostly kept it the same, as it looked pretty good, but I did do a few changes to make it a little bit different from the other Chaos God gifted Big Guys. For stats, I just made it the same as the Rotspawn, but with one point lower for the Armour Value. For skills, I kept most the same, but with a few changes. First, I made him have Loner as a 5+, as I figured that the Beast of Malal, would do his own thing, and causing havoc. Second, I changed the Really Stupid trait to Animal Frenzy, as I don’t think that a Beast of Malal is dumb, like I pointed out with Loner he will just do his own thing and attack whomever, and just like Khorne doesn’t care who’s blood is spilled, Malal doesn’t care who he kills, friend and foes alike. Third, I changed Claw, to Stab, as when you look at the original drawing by Tony Ackland, The Beast doesn’t have Claws, but more like a Preying Mantis type arms, To me, that more of a Piercing attack, than a grab and crushing type of thing. Then lastly, I added Iron Hard Skin, as an extra defense, as most of the drawings of the Daemons of Malal, they all look insect like, and most insects have an exoskeleton, it just make sense that the Beast of Malal would have it. As for the other skills they make sense to me, Regeneration, as it’s a spawn of Malal. No Hands, as it has preying mantis arms. Thick Skull as that’s the core gift that Malal gives. Foul Appearance, as no one want attack something that it will have them for a pregame snack, and Sure Feet, as it’s a four legged beast, and be able to recover quickly for running fast. For Skill access, on a Normal would Strength, and Agility & General on a Double. As for Price, I kept it as 140k, and you can buy him off the bat. None of this “when you kill an opposing player and roll a 6 on a d6, then the opposing player turns into a Beast of Malal” mechanic that was on the original Malal Team. I will get into that can of worms later of why I took that out and why it doesn’t fit with the team.

One thing that people will notice that none of the players have access to Mutations. It wasn’t on the original Malal or the Daemons of Malal team, and there was a comment about Kaleb Daark, that he was less mutated than other followers of Chaos, making it seem like Malal, doesn’t grant his followers the ability to change or enhance their form unlike the other Chaos Gods, unless he deems it so, which is why Iron Hard Skin is the only mutation that they have.

Here are the extra stuff and changes that I think that should be done to the team. First off, getting rid of that special rule of “Any player killed by this team could join this team. They keep all their stats skills, SPP and any injuries they are carrying etc... After the game roll 1 D6 for each player killed on the opposing team. On a 1 the wounds inflicted were too severe and the player dies, on a 2-5 the player is healed by the teams apothecary and has sworn allegiance to Malal and the destruction of Chaos. On a 6 Malal transforms the player in to a Beast of Malal (when this happens the player loses all skills, SPP, injuries, stat increases etc... and starts as a rookie Beast of Malal as shown in the roster above). Chaos Daemons and Undead players cannot be converted or turned in to a beast of Malal, only the mortal can be converted” from the original team. First off, it doesn’t fit the whole Malal theme, as why would he bring someone back to life, when he sounds like and fingers point out that he is the Chaos God that represents Destruction, Malice and the Harvester of Souls when you read about Kaleb Daark and Dreadaxe. Second of all, this mechanic is so overpowered and too broken even for Blood Bowl. For starters, there is no real restrictions (other than who can be transformed into the Beast of Malal) for this rule unlike Plague Ridden or Masters of Undeath have where they must have a Strength score of 4 or less and not have the Decay, Regeneration or Stunty traits, so it can be used on anybody, and they gain a new positional. Second, players keeping skills, SPP, etc, once they get brought back to life? Honestly, if I was a Chaos God bring someone back to life, it will have some kind of price for it, and I grant them what I want them to have, not what they already had before they died. Also with this rule, it is something that seasoned coaches with seasoned players might try and ignore playing against the original Malal team. To me, if I was a seasoned coach, I will feel like they will be trying to head hunt (in more ways than one) my players that I spent a while to develop, try and kill them, and they have a 4 out of 6 chance (5 out of 6 if it’s a Daemons of Chaos or Undead) to make them join their team, without doing any of the hard work to develop them. In the end, it’s a rule mechanic that should go away.

Second, I will keep the team re-rolls as 70k, as all the other the other Chaos God teams have the same amount for their team re-rolls. As for the Apothecary, the Malal team, will not have access to one. Again it just seems to fit the theme, and feel for Malal. Why would he gives someone the chance to survive, when he want to see everything destroyed.

Lastly, for Special Rules, they will have the Favoured of Malal keyword. I know that the Daemons of Malal have the Favoured of Chaos Undivided keyword, and it will be likely that the Malal team will have that as well, as Malal is not reference what so ever in GW, but with my understanding and thinking of Chaos Undivided means to me, is that with Chaos Undivided means that the forces of Chaos will join together for a common case, without caring who’s Chaos God they belong to, but with Malal, he is the Renegade God of Chaos, that is feared and hated by the other four Chaos Gods, and Malal followers are just as hated by friends and foes of Chaos, so they will never get along side with a Nurgle, Khorne, Slaanesh or Tzeentch players, and they will never play for a Malal team. Hence why Chaos Undivided does not suit Malal at all, and they should have the Favoured of Malal.

All in all, I think that these changes would make Malal as a fun, unique and a playable team, and no offense to the guy that first created the Malal Team. I have to give Garion and Harvestmouse credit for setting the groundwork and they did a great job of making the Linemen and the Beast of Malal position, but I think they kind of missed the mark of what Malal is all about, and how he goes against the other Chaos Gods. And yes, the special rule that he had to gain new positional, like gaining followers looked cool, but rereading it, it doesn’t seem to fit the Malal mold and having a rule that seem overpowered, broken, and something that other coaches don’t want to deal with, as there is more of a risk for long time coaches playing against the Malal team, and the possibility of a newly created Malal team getting a high reward, even if they don’t win the Bloodbowl game, I’m hoping with game play, and other coaches input and advise, to iron out the wrinkles to make this a solid team for the FUMBBL Secret Team.

Changes

Oct 11, 2021 - With GW showing the stats for the Bloodspawn, I quickly wanted to check out of what I did for the Beast of Malal, for stats, skills and price. So far everything is to my liking, however I did decide to up the price from 140k to 150k, for some of the skills that he has, and to drop regeneration. My thinking on that, is that this was a gift to a mortal to final change, but Malal is still the Renegade Chaos God of Destruction, so why would he grant his followers to be able to come back, when he wants to see everything self destruct, but look on the bright side as this is the only positional on the team that doesn't have decay.

For Team Tier, I would place them as Tier 2 (more like 2.5). To me they are a very stable team, until things goes wrong. Every positional on this team, is able to stay on the field, but once things goes wrong, and dice rolls don't go in your favour, this team can self explode, just the way Malal want's it.

October 12, 2021 - Added the Player Pics (by knut Rockie, coloured by Harvestmouse and Garion) and Icons (by Whatball and Cowhead) onto the page from the original Malal Team that was done, as they fit the roll of the Renegade Linemen and the Beast of Malal. Just need to add in Player Pics and Icons for the Malagors and Malal Warriors, and hopefully can starting play testing them to work out the kinks.

October 15, 2021 - After some thought, I decided to add Nevers of Steel, and up the price from 85k to 100k to the Malagors. My reasoning for this is mostly because I wanted to show that the Malagors, also have no fear of being inside of a tackle zone from an opposing player, plus they are your main ball carriers of the game. So with the addition of the skill, it just make sense to increase the price for the player. Not too sure if they (and for that matter all the other positionals) might be over priced, but after doing some roster builds, I was able to build some good rosters at 1,000k with the minimum of 11 players.

As of right now, I'm pretty content of how the roster looks with stats and skills. Might do another change once GW, shows the skills access for the Khorne team, and try to figure out if I should change the Malal Team skill access.

October 22, 2021 - So, after some thought wondering what was that one thing to make them different and stand out from the other Chaos Teams, I decided to add an additional Big Guy onto the team, and use the same mechanics of you can only chose one of the following of Big Guys. Not only will this give the team a different game play, but it will also gives a spotlight to another creation that Tony Ackland drew for Malal as the Greater and Lesser Daemon’s of Malal is represented in the Daemon of Malal team as the Soul Reavers and Harvester of Souls (and honest opinion that that team needs a revamp at one point). Originally, I was going to make the Steed of Malal, more of a Dirty Player type positional, but after re-looking at the picture, noticed that the Steed, wasn’t walking on something that most people would think of feet, but they are walking on three pairs of hands. Boom, a ball carrier Big Guy. It’s different in so many levels, doesn’t look like it has been done by GW, and gives a different game play for Coaches. With the stats I gave him Movement 8, Strength 5, Agility 3+, Passing Nil and Armour 9+. I wanted to show that this guy was fast, and as a Steed with walking around with 6 hands, they should be pretty quick to get to place to place, so Movement 8 seem fitting, as it make him the fastest out of all the Big Guys, As for Strength, I really wanted it as 4, to show that this is not a “combat” positional, but with Plague Ridden, and Master of Undead, I needed it to be Strength 5, to negate those effects. I know Regeneration and Stunty would negate those effects as well, but Regeneration doesn’t not fit in the whole Malal theme, and I have a hard time thinking any Big Guy as a Stunty player. As for Agility, I made it as 3+ to show that more Agile than the other Big Guys, and he is able to handle the ball more at ease because of his six hands. Lastly, for Passing and Armour, kept it as the same as most other Big Guys. Now for skill, lets get the basic team theme out of the way of Thick Skull, and Iron Hard Skin which by now, people should know. Loner (5+), as he will be difficult to do stuff, and will do his own things just like the Beast of Malal, and Sure Feet, as all the other quadrupedal positional have that skill. As for the “Big Guys” negative traits, Really Stupid and Take Root. Originally I was going to have Really Stupid, as the Steed might of needed someone beside him to direct him to where to go, then I thought of why don’t I add it Take Root as well. It fits perfectly, as this also makes the team self destructive as well, when your Movement 8 player just says “Nope, not bugging”. It’s almost like dealing with that stubborn horse, where when they don’t want to move, that won’t and the harder you push, the harder they will resist and push back, another reason why it has Loner (5+). Now, I have seen people play the Garion’s Secret League Teams on videos, and when a player has two negative skills that you need to roll, they don’t know what to roll first. So, for those players that do want to run this on table top, Really Stupid is rolled first, as you need to give the Steed of Malal orders first, if that roll fails, then you don’t need to roll for Take Root. If you succeed on the Really Stupid roll, then Roll for the Take Root, to see if the Steed is willing to do your order. It just makes logical sense it should be in that order. Now the fun part. First off Disturbing Presence, where the Beast of Malal has Foul Appearance, the should has something of the same feel. Disturbing Presence gives them that feel, but in a different way, where a thrower feels like there is a heat seeking missile ready to go after the ball after they throw it, which leads in to the reason why they also have On the Ball, where they can get closer to that ball, and showcasing their busting speed. I don’t think I need to explain them having Extra Arms as they have Six Hands, As for Monstrous Mouth, I can actually see the Steed of Malal either picking up or catching the ball, putting the ball in his mouth, and starts running down the field at top speed. I was going to also add in Very Long Legs, but decided not to as I didn’t want to make him to overpowered, and he already has a lot of skills. Also, other than Thick Skull and Sure Feet, every other Skill they have, they don’t have access to them when they level up. I wanted to keep that open for Coaches to build them up to how they want to see them, and their play style. For Skill Access on a Single they get Agility, and on a Double Strength and General. Again, something different for a Big Guy, as normally it’s the other way around where it’s Strength on a Single, and Agility on a Double, but like I said before I wanted to give this Big Guy a different feel, and gives Coaches a different style to use a Big Guy positional. As for Price I have it as 150k. Might seem low for a positional with so many skills and high stats, but you do need to take into factor that he has to succeed two roll in order to activate the player, and any failed roll can stop your momentum, or really stop your momentum, by not wanting to move what so ever.
Other changes that I made are as follows. I upped the price of the Renegade Linemen from 50k to 60k, as they just seemed under priced. Changed the skill access of the Malagors to have AP on a single and SG on a double, just make them more of a ball handler, than another brawler. Other than that. I think things looks good. Any feedback would be greatful.

Team design by Garion and Harvestmouse, Updated by Parn_Star
Rational by Parn_Star
Background by Garion
Icons by Whatball and Cowhead
Player Pics by knut Rockie coloured by Harvestmouse and Garion