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Danse Macabre Teams

Player Art


Player Icons
Skeleton Lineman

Zombie Lineman

Dancing Skeletons

Enchanted Zombies

Corpse Cart


Background
Van Hal was once a Necromancer coach of the Undead team - Erengrad Undertakers. A team famed for building their stadium on a burial sight. In a historic game vs Athelorn Avengers the head coach Freddy Van Hal resurrected the dead from their graves causing a mass pitch invasion and mass casualties to the Avengers. Since that day building a stadium on burial grounds was forbidden and Van Hal was fired by the teams chairman.

After the dissolution of the NAF when teams became nomadic Van Hal saw his opportunity to get back into the game. He created enchanted corpse carts and employed Dregs to collect the dead from all over the Old World and formed a new type of Undead team. Like Shambling Undead teams Van Hal's team were made up of Skeleton and Zombie Linemen. But unlike Shambling Undead his team were incredibly fast, matching the speed of a Skaven team! The great necromancer had found a way to enchant a number of undead players every game with a spell he named Van Hal's Danse Macabre. At the start of the game the Corpse Cart was wheeled onto the pitch by a Dregs and the spell was channelled through the pile of bodies on the wheel barrow like contraption enchanting the surround Skeletons and Zombies with unnatural abilities: The Skeletons started spinning around resembling something like a dance and then striking fast at the unwitting opposition, while the Zombies sprinted around the pitch with incredible speed. Though the players were fast, they still had rotting limbs so the players dexterity and agility wasn't quite up to the task but even so the teams unique make up and extreme speed made them a formidable force.

Van Hal has long since retired but many undead teams can be found now throughout The World employing the same tactics. The teams are known in the Blood Bowl world as Danse Macabre Teams named after the originator's famous incantation.

Rationale
Danse Macabre teams are based around the lore of the famous Necromancer Van Hal (sometimes called Van Hel) and his famous incantation Danse Macabre (dance of the dead). This spell makes the Necronmancers Zombies skeletons REALLY fast, and buffs them in a variety of ways. Van Hal is also the creator of the Corpse Cart, and he used this cart of corpses to channel the magic spell on to his undead hordes.

The basic make up of the team is Undead and Skeletons. 4 of Each are enchanted. I decided to make the Skeletons represent the dancing aspect of the spell. This is both a nod to the famous painting which Warhammer used as inspiration for this spell, which depicts skeletons dancing around with linked hands, spinning each other around. I felt Side Step was the best way to depict the dancing skeletons. I increases their Ma to 7, because part of the spell is increasing Ma. I decided to give the Dancing Skeletons S access as a representation of their increased martial ability due to the spell.

For the Enchanted Zombie I decided to go the other route, giving them the max Ma of 9 which is the spells main focus. I also decided to give them A access as the spell does also make them more agile. But I wanted this like the Skeleton to be represented in their development options, rather than start with S skills. Also retaining the low Ag across the team mixed with the high Ma makes this team a very unique proposition.

Finally I added the Corpse Cart. I decided this should not have Secret Weapon, because much like the Pogo, or Doom Diver etc.... this is not a weapon. it is just a cart with corpses on. I gave it Regeneration as it is enchanted and regenerates and I gave it Disturbing Presence to represent the foul smell coming form the cart, and the off-putting nature of having dead bodies carted around the pitch. The cart is fairly vulnerable and doesn't have any hitting power to start off with. But it is a reasonable roadblock, just to tie up the opposition allowing the speedy and annoying Skeletons and Zombies to swarm the opposition.

Team designed by Garion and Fanky
Team Background and Rationale by Garion
Player Art by Knut Rockie, Coloured by Garion and Ryan Fitz
Icons by Habeli