FUMBBL :: Online Blood Bowl League

Joined: Oct 08, 2008

Posted: Mar 30, 2026 - 21:31

If they would ban star players Stunties would be doomed in tournament life. Did 2/2/2 with Halflings with Puggy, Rumbelow and a Masterchef. With which I was very pleased. If you play stunty you have to be ready to lose and bet it all to win or draw. Smile

Garion

Joined: Aug 19, 2009

Posted: Mar 31, 2026 - 08:54

Vicen wrote:

According to statistics from the Fumbble website, 2010 was the last year Blood Bowl was a balanced game. (Rate stats: First Amazons with 56% ; Last Goblins with 40%)

So my question: what happen between LRB5 and LRB6 ?
2011: Goblins 30%, Halflings and Ogres 28%.

Star Players banned ?

Lrb4 was indeed the ruleset then... and while that's my favourite blood bowl ruleset ever and I'd love claim victory with your post... if you look at blackbox data from the same era you will see wildly different data

Which basically implies "picking" generally leads to fairer match ups. As both coaches are happy with the game. Whereas blackbox pairs teams on team value which is sometimes accurate and sometimes wildly wrong...

edit: I've checked I stand corrected... even if just looking at Blackbox during lrb4 the balance was the best its ever been according to that data.. Though 2011 is muddied data, as I believe that is the year the site switched from LRB4 to CRP (skipping out LRB5 all together) so it has a bit of both.

#LRB4 Forever!

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Garion

Joined: Aug 19, 2009

Posted: Mar 31, 2026 - 09:28

If you are asking why the results read better for lrb4. Its likely due to a few different things:

* 1 - Firstly the rosters were not over described like they are now... They were basic, players had 1 or 2 skills max, and they were better for it, which created fewer "hard counters", in fact the only one I can think of was Dwarfs and Chaos Dwarfs vs Stunties or Amazons.

* 2 - Team development was slower. MVP was completely random, and TR increased with SPP not skills attained, and low TV bash was more brutal due to DP.

* 3 - ageing (though hated by lots) was effective at keeping teams in range of eachother generally speaking... There were teams that dedicated insane number of games to beat the odds and get a good squad that was not full of niggled players, but in the grand scheme of things they were rare

* 4 - the best weapon in the game for doing damage was DP as it was only 1 skill, and everyone had access too it (stunties on doubles). However it was also offset by the IGMEOY rule which generally speaking stopped it being too obscene... Though some still felt it too powerful.

* 5 - The number of skills was far fewer (and the game better for it) and more restricted, due to Traits. Traits were really nice skills which created more unique rosters. Though obviously block, dodge, tackle, MB, guard etc.. were still king.

* 6 - there were no journeymen (this is of course a bad thing, and for me the worst thing about the edition... however this gave stunty teams a leg up. They had an abundance of players and could win from good fouling game, and picking off already beat up teams which likely increased their win percentage. As a fling player myself even back in 2010 i remember coaches with beat up teams eagerly picking my flings thinking it would be an easy game only for their team to get brutalised...

* 7 - This one is a guess.. as I dont have the data available... however I suspect there was a BIG bias towards playing certain races. I remember Orcs especially being ubiqutous. Dwarfs were everywhere too. Av9 teams were the order of the day. But the meta being slanted that way would have a knock on effect. Slow teams rulling the roost = more draws.

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Chingis

Joined: Jul 09, 2007

Posted: Mar 31, 2026 - 14:35

Re. fouling at number 4: don't discount the fact that scary fouling encourages balanced team-building too. Putting all your eggs in one superstar basket starts to look risky! You might not be willing to trade your fouler to take out one of the four players in an opposition team with Tackle, but on the other hand you could have a whole troupe of referees on the sidelines all with their eye on you and you're still going to stamp on the single guy with Tackle, Mighty blow, Piling On and Claw in a team of rookies!

It's harder to rely on one-trick pony tactics if most team can easily stamp on one chosen pony.

Garion

Joined: Aug 19, 2009

Posted: Mar 31, 2026 - 14:56

Chingis wrote:

Re. fouling at number 4: don't discount the fact that scary fouling encourages balanced team-building too. Putting all your eggs in one superstar basket starts to look risky! You might not be willing to trade your fouler to take out one of the four players in an opposition team with Tackle, but on the other hand you could have a whole troupe of referees on the sidelines all with their eye on you and you're still going to stamp on the single guy with Tackle, Mighty blow, Piling On and Claw in a team of rookies!

It's harder to rely on one-trick pony tactics if most team can easily stamp on one chosen pony.

Yep true. Not only that but ageing and the lack of journeymen encouraged more even skill distribution

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BitsHammer

Joined: Sep 05, 2020

Posted: Mar 31, 2026 - 17:01

Chingis wrote:

Re. fouling at number 4: don't discount the fact that scary fouling encourages balanced team-building too. Putting all your eggs in one superstar basket starts to look risky! You might not be willing to trade your fouler to take out one of the four players in an opposition team with Tackle, but on the other hand you could have a whole troupe of referees on the sidelines all with their eye on you and you're still going to stamp on the single guy with Tackle, Mighty blow, Piling On and Claw in a team of rookies!

It's harder to rely on one-trick pony tactics if most team can easily stamp on one chosen pony.

As someone who had to foul Hakflem off the pitch yesterday: yes. One high priced star player can do a lot of work for you, but it also puts a big target on that player.

Vicen

Joined: Jan 05, 2023

Posted: Apr 08, 2026 - 17:02

(edit)

Last edited by Vicen on Apr 14, 2026; edited 3 times in total

JimmyFantastic

Joined: Feb 06, 2007

Posted: Apr 08, 2026 - 19:32

LRB4 was awful. Sad that fumbbl had to endure such a bad ruleset for so long!

Halfabrain

Joined: Jan 20, 2018

Posted: Apr 08, 2026 - 22:54

Trolls losing loner is big but why is everyone getting excited about loonies stunty dodge? Its a bit of a poison chalice, a 1 shot rr eating play that either works or doesn't and then you lose your saw either way. Gobs are still crap and and if anything are worse since nearly every other team got new toys and sneaky git got sent to the dungeon. TTM is slightly better which means that it will now only mostly not work rather than almost never work.

ededdeddie

Joined: Apr 15, 2026

Posted: Apr 17, 2026 - 00:43

I vote we remove the Secret Weapon trait from the Goblin positionals! That should make the team stronger and more fun to run Smile

(you can thematically justify it as the gobbos bribing the refs pre game)

Drrek

Joined: Jul 23, 2012

Posted: Apr 17, 2026 - 01:00

If we're buffing goblins, I've always felt they should be allowed to roster bribes

Garion

Joined: Aug 19, 2009

Posted: Apr 17, 2026 - 08:49

Halfabrain wrote:

Trolls losing loner is big but why is everyone getting excited about loonies stunty dodge? Its a bit of a poison chalice, a 1 shot rr eating play that either works or doesn't and then you lose your saw either way.

It's the threat the player poses, sure its one shot wonder. But it's a lovely defensive tool to have. And forces your opposition to be mindful of the chainsaws position at all times

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sirvejlance

Joined: May 20, 2022

Posted: Apr 17, 2026 - 09:23

After playing both 2020 and 2025 goblins, I think they are worse now, despite some buffs.

1. Bombs is much worse now. They don´t blow up 50% of the times like they used to.
2. The Dodge-saw costs 50k TV, and without dodge you get one chainsaw blitz with him before he dies.
3. Ooligan, the 2020 main gobbo is rubbish, when sneaky git is useless.

Zelmor

Joined: Sep 29, 2022

Posted: Apr 17, 2026 - 09:44

I think black box is not a representative sample. It's an environment that removes much of what stunties are about: playing into regular teams with 2-600TV gaps, swimming in inducements. If you want to see what stunties are designed around, look at the upcoming Ulthuan qualifier game between RickWreckless and Henning. Rick's Snotlings have 750-800TV inducements vs a developed orc team. Both coaches know what they are doing, so the game should be entertaining.

Sp00keh

Joined: Dec 06, 2011

Posted: Apr 17, 2026 - 10:10

bomma worse, but swoop is incredibly good now (just don't use Bullseye on it)
troll can throw more reliably without loner

arguably you want fewer secret weapons now, so that you don't get depleted enough to be forced to field the doom diver before it gets the chance to TTM

maybe the best idea is, in one half you kick, get beat up, TTM at the end
in the other half you recieve, TTM early, then get beat up
if both TTMs work then u win 2-1?
so this means saving rerolls for it and taking the pogo for the handoff speed

side note,
normally vs TTM set up around 6 squares from the end, to make the landing harder
but vs swoop u need to do a backline fence, to avoid having it go over ur head and at least force the 3 dodges