*At Press Conference just outside Altdorf Federal Prison*

"Ahem, I want to thank you all for coming here today to witness Justice FINALLY being served. As many will know I was falsely imprisoned on the trumphed up charges of tax evasion. Thanks to the diligent efforts of my law team - Dewy, Skrewem and Howe - I have been released to return to my beloved GLN. I would like to thank the staff for stepping up and making sure we made it to press on time. Calthor, thank you very much - now GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!!!"

GG Gobberson

So folks, here we are again: issue 10 of the GLN. Once again our team has out done themselves with effort and interesting pieces. Huge huge thanks to Calthor and James_Probert that kept the ball rolling (uphill) as real life blindsided me. So, without further delay, enjoy! - Ro

Hello all! This is Rachet Axelbender Niklotz, thanking you for joining the latest GLN report.

Unfortunately, I cannot divulge information on my exact current whereabouts, like normally. The reason for that is that I myself do not know where I am exactly! I am currently in a sanctuary of sorts – a temple, if you will. However, during my long trip to get here, lasting about three days, I have been kept blindfolded. All I know, is that I am somewhere in the heart of the Old World, possibly within the large human Empire. I am here to give all you Grotty Little Newspaper readers the low down on a religious cult that has been drawing secretive followers from all over the world. I am here to report on the Sacred Esoteric Order of Nuffle!

The Sacred Esoteric Order of Nuffle is a religious cult that believes that the god Nuffle should be worshipped outside of Blood Bowl matches as well. The Order has been steadily growing in secrecy since its original founding, drawing away followers from all corners of the world. It is not just Blood Bowl fans that have been converted to the cult, but also followers who formerly worshipped the mighty Sigmar or the bloodthirsty Khorne!

Right now I am in one of the many hidden gathering places of the cult. The locations of these places are kept strictly secret, since the cult would surely be persecuted by the authorities. The reason for that is that while all believe in Nuffle's existence, they also believe his realm should not exceed beyond the glory of the Blood Bowl pitch. These people believe otherwise and their increasing influence scares many. Perhaps with reason: Nuffle would surely be able to gather a massive following quickly if this would really catch on, since everyone watches Blood Bowl. The message would spread like a wildfire!

Ah, listen carefully! It looks like the cultists are chanting right now.

“Woe to you, Oh Pitch of Blood, for Nuffle sends his beasts with wrath,
because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beasts
for it is Nuffle's number, its number is One and Ten.”

Doesn't that just chill you to the bone? It sure does for me.

Please note that the followers of Nuffle are of all kinds of backgrounds. Sure, the main group is human, but there is surprisingly little hatred between different races. Here at this ritual we see a group of eleven, not surprisingly. There are five humans, two orcs, a couple of different kind of elves and finally even a vampire. That vampire looks a bit famished, so I'll stay clear of him! I would love to speak with any of them, but to tell you the truth, it doesn't look like any of them will be much of use. They are definitely in some kind of state of religious trance.

Fortunately, I had a word with one of the cult's members earlier today. He explained it to me more or less in the following way.
What does Sigmar do? What does Nurgle do? What does the Horned Rat do, Shallya or any other god in the world? They reward their followers with blessings – the exact nature of the blessing depends on the god, of course. We desire Nuffle's blessing, as it is the most direct. It directly influences fate. With Nuffle's blessing, you will never lose a fight or fail a dodge. With Nuffle's favour, the world lies at your feet.
It seems to me that we are just dealing with a passing phase. Because what these cultists are forgetting, is that Nuffle is a fickle god. Nuffle does not care about any followers: he will not treat them any differently.

This is Rachet Axelbender Niklotz for the GLN – until next time!

GLN: Hello Tom Anders - for some better known as GalakStarscraper! For those who might not be familiar with your name, could you explain to us who you are?

Tom: I'm a life long player of board and strategy games. I started one of the early Blood Bowl fansites that specialized in storing information on Blood Bowl history, variants and house rules. I helped co-program the Play-By-Mail software for Blood Bowl. I eventually was invited to join the BBRC and through a series of events I ended up being solely responsible for writing the rules for LRB 5.0 for a period of one year. I worked as a computer program/statistician for an auditing firm for 18 years and now am president of a Impact! Miniatures, a small board game and pewter miniatures manufacturer.

GLN: How did you come into contact with the Blood Bowl game?

Tom: A league was started at Fantasy Games in South Bend, Indiana, USA (www.chaosmailorder.com) and my buddies who played Magic the Gathering with me invited me to join. I joined with a Vampire team and this was my introduction to Blood Bowl.

GLN: How has the passion for this game influenced your life?

Tom: A lot of time spent on it. I spent thousands of hours working on what became the CRP rules for Blood Bowl for GW. I'm a moderator for a couple different Blood Bowl forums. Working on Blood Bowl and seeing areas that were not allowed to be changed caused me to think there had to be a way to do things differently. These factors have both had a lot of effect on my life.

GLN: What would you consider your favourite team to play personally?

Tom: It's a tie for me. My favourite teams are Halfings and Slann by a large margin. Both are more difficult teams to win with and I enjoy the challenge. I've had a lot of influence for the rules for Halflings in the current ruleset and the rules for the Slann were ones that I wrote, so I feel like a lot of me went into both teams.

GLN: How much Blood Bowl do you get to play these days?

Tom: Mostly tournaments. I played in a two-day tournament in early April and have another two day I'm attending in early July. My current job keeps me very busy but I enjoy taking time out to meet up with players at any tournament I can attend.

GLN: How do you spend your time besides Blood Bowl?

Tom: The vast majority of my time is spent working on making Impact! Miniatures better either through working on new miniatures or rules for new games. Other than the significant time I spent with my wife and two sons, the other item I spend time on is hybridizing daylilies. I hope in summer 2011 to open my own online store to sell them (Galak's Gardens). It's a peaceful hobby and good exercise and there are times I need to get more of both of those.

GLN: How did you come to work for Games Workshop as the person most responsible for the LRB 5 and CRP rules?

Tom: It really was a matter of being the person on the BBRC who had the time and energy and patience to do so. In the beginning it was only Ian Williams (Doubleskulls), Jervis Johnson, and myself really working on the rules for the first year. Then Jervis was required to work on other projects and it was just Ian and I. After two months Ian had to quit due to family commitments and Jervis offered to either make what we had final and call it good or allow me full control for another year of work. I knew the rules were not ready yet to be LRB 5.0 so I stayed with it. Between LRB 5.0 and CRP it was the full four coach members of the BBRC working on the rules which we presented yearly to show Jervis what we were working on once we have 100% agreement between ourselves and get his approval.

GLN: What changes compared to LRB 4 are you most satisfied with? Why is that rule change so important?

Tom: I have three! 1) Getting rid of the rule of aging and replacing it with greater on-pitch death and retirement was a huge change that I like. Aging sucked all the fun out of one of the best parts of the game: new skill rolls. So I'm glad we got rid of off-pitch death. 2) The Norse team redo. The current Norse roster was one that I worked up so I'm glad to see it made it through testing. The old Norse roster was too cookie cutter when we also had the same with the Amazon team and it needed to be changed to get rid of the cookie cutter and give it more power in later league play. 3) Inducements. While they may not be perfect they are so much better than the Handicap table which did so little to give the underdog any odds to win that I'm glad Inducements became part of the game.

GLN: If you could turn back the clock, would you have done it all again? And are there things you would have done differently along the way?

Tom: Yes. I would now up front that I was doing it to make the game better and not for GW at all. But even with how badly GW treated everyone who worked on the CRP rules, it was good work that made the game better and I'm glad we did it. The only two things I would have done differently I think, would have been to convince Jervis to repackage the Khemri miniatures as an Undead alternative and delete the Khemri team from the game somehow. I also would have really found a way to convince Jervis to leave the Bank rules in for CRP instead of deleting them and adding in the Petty Cash rules that Jervis wrote that are just really inelegant rules (and in fact time is showing that they have issues that the Bank rules didn't).

GLN: As of the end of December, you are no longer member of the BBRC and therefore no longer involved with Games Worshop and the rules behind Blood Bowl. Do you regret ending this period in your life?

Tom: No. I like the CRP rules - and GW posted them so for me the work was done. I hope Blood Bowl rules don't change for another decade or more. I have better things to work on now and have a lot more time to design games now for my own company as I put GW's needs ahead of my own for the whole time I worked to help them (including taking vacation days from my previous job to hit deadlines that Jervis gave me for submissions). So I don't regret that period being over - especially since our work is now official.

GLN: The CRP document which has been uploaded by Games Worshop is not exactly like the one you handed in. In the original document there was a lot of background information, correct? What did we miss? Will this information ever be seen by the community in some form?

Tom: "Almost" all of the background work and 'Did You Know?'s were in LRB 5.0 which is still posted on GW's website. The Cyanide forums have a link to LRB 5.0 so if you want to have all the background we worked on just get a copy of LRB 5.0 before it disappears. I've seen some incredible looking homemade books that folks have printed out mixing the background information from LRB 5.0 with the CRP rules so it is still possible to make a great looking rulebook for yourself that has all the background information that GW ignorantly deleted.

GLN: How would you describe your current feelings towards Games Workshop?

Tom: I think GW is a company that owns the rights to an incredible game that they don't deserve to own. They have no concept of how to develop fans or to nurture free advertising and fan support when there are so many companies out there that do it right (like Blizzard for example). I think GW is run by legal without any benefit of common sense from marketing tempering them. I think GW's business model is the gold standard for what not to do with a gaming company. They have profits and are publicly traded... Awesome for them... They sold their gamer souls to make it happen.

GLN: There have been many positive, but also many negative reactions to the LRB 5+ rules. How do you deal with the negative reactions? What would you want to say to those LRB 4 fans that aren't willing enough to give the newer rules a chance?

Tom: I spent many years listening the negatives and at this point the negative reactions bother me not at all. Most of the folks who negatively receive the CRP rules are because they believe that they have earned the right to crush new teams just because they have a team they've played for 20 games or because they want to foul their way to a win. Those are differences in views of what the game should be and if that is what they want, then they just are not going to get it. As for LRB 4 fans that are not in one of the two above camps: my comment would be that the races are now more balanced and the games are more interesting when every match comes with a built in attempt to give the underdog a 1 in 3 chance to pull off a win. Dying on the pitch is always more fun than dying from a skill roll (from forced retirement). Those would be my comments on why to give it a chance.

GLN: Do you ever grow tired of Blood Bowl?

Tom: No, I don't ... It's a great game and I still enjoy playing it whenever I can or thinking about ways to make it better. I still check four different Blood Bowl forums every day to stay connected on what is going on with the Blood Bowl community.

This interview is continued on Page 5

Continued from page 4

GLN: It is quite odd that you have been president of the company Impact! Miniatures (www.impactminiatures.com) while working on the new rules. Why do you think Games Workshop tolerated this and you were only discharged from the BBRC after the CRP was finished?

Tom: The first statement is not really accurate. Impact! wasn't started until after I had finished working on LRB 5.0 and given the results over to Jervis. So at no point in time when I had sole control over the rules was I involved with Impact!. After LRB 5.0 all four player/coach members of the BBRC were required to agree 100% to ANY changes from LRB 5.0 to CRP (so even one negative vote would kill a change). Since I was part of Impact! I agreed up front to the BBRC that if the 3 of them agreed on any topic that I would not vote against it so that there would be no way for me to influence the rules for personal gain. I was also part of the Beta test team for Cyanide and was screened by GW via phone for the role and they were fully aware of my work with Impact! I was told over the phone by GW during one conversation that Elfball was a unique IP that did not violate any of GW's IP rights with Blood Bowl. So the answer is that there really was no way for me to influence Blood Bowl to have Impact! profit due to the checks and balances and I had never displayed any actions to suggest I was trying to do this. As a result, GW stated they had no issues with me staying on the BBRC or working with the Cyanide Beta test team. I was also the person responsible for pulling together all the document updates for GW and had all the source files and GW had a bad track record of losing files like these or taking months beyond their own deadlines to update them and I always dropped everything to work on Blood Bowl when it was required.

Tom: My discharge from the BBRC had nothing to do with Impact! from what I was told by GW. After we submitted the finalized CRP rules to Jervis he sent me an email that to this day I read as a clear call to action on his behalf similar to multiple emails he had sent me over the years of my tenure assisting him with Blood Bowl. I went into action on his request and the public responded negatively to it. Only after the negative press for Jervis' request was posted on forums all over the Internet did GW make the decision I guess to create a fall guy. The next thing I know GW legal spins it to state that I had shared private information in violation of my NDA and was being forcibly removed from the BBRC. The funny thing was that the BBRC had already been told they were being disbanded since the CRP rules were finished - so one does have to question GW's actions for this for an organization that was finished anyway. That is my long way to say that I don't have understanding why GW did anything they did given I followed every rule they gave me and helped Jervis with every request of me that he made and never mixed anything from my personal affairs in any way with Blood Bowl for either the board game or the computer game. I'm quite sure I never will understand it either!

GLN: You used to own a website that was a bit of a treasure chest for old Blood Bowl information. This part of the website was taken out as you moved to a different url because of a C&D letter from GW. Nevertheless, you own many Blood Bowl memoralia. Which of these are you most proud of?

Tom: Being forced to shut down all the information on Blood-Bowl.net after it had been up for 8 years was a big personal hit for me. However, focusing on the historical items in my collection... I still like the Blood Bowl helmet I have in my collection. It was one of only two made by GW when they had the first ever GW official Blood Bowl tournament. One was given as a prize and the other they kept (it shows up in Blood Bowl Magazine #1 in recent publications). That helmet was given to me by Jervis in person as a thank you for all the work I did on behalf of Blood Bowl. I'm proud of it because it is so rare and such a documented piece of BB history and for the reason I received it. Yes - three years later I get kicked in the nads for that work by the same folks, but I can separate those events from what was going on when I got the helmet.

GLN: The Cyanide game has been released quite some time ago. Have you played it? What is your opinion on it?

Tom: I have played it some as a Beta tester... There were too many things wrong with it compared to the rules that I spent so much work on to continue playing it after the Beta testing period was over.

GLN: Considering the negative press that the Cyanide game has received, with respect to among others; bad AI, limited amount of races, bugs, unsupportive community, would you have rather seen that the game never appeared at all?

Tom: I think it's good the game appeared and is being worked on. I really want to see what they release for the LE version at the end of this year before I get too negative on the game. I have high hopes based on the people I know that are newly involved with the process at Cyanide that LE will make a lot of inroads to fix all the things that kept me from purchasing a copy of the first Cyanide Blood Bowl game.

GLN: As far as I know, you have never played a game on FUMBBL. Why is that?

Tom: It's difficult for me to carve out that much time with my job and family commitments. So for years I played PBeM games instead as those I could do with just five minutes each day.

GLN: FUMBBL is getting closer and closer to a new client that will support the new rules. Have you seen the new client? If so, do you have any opinion on it?

Tom: I have not yet seen the new client, but I have high hopes for it. I think having FUMBBL on the CRP rules would be a great thing and give folks who are not impressed with what Cyanide has offered to us today a real opportunity to play the current rules of Blood Bowl online.

GLN: There have been rumours that FUMBBL might, in a very distant future, support other Fantasy Football games as well as normal Blood Bowl – such as Elfball. Would you support that, considering that Impact! Miniatures has a special interest in Elfball?

Tom: Special interest as in I wrote the current version and Impact! sells it! Wink Unlike GW, Impact! has made sure we work with our fans to license the work that they do. The website http://www.elfball.org is a recent example of a fan site that we worked with to legally make sure it could exist and our rights would still be protected. Impact! would gladly support Elfall being played on FUMBBL as long as we made sure the right legal notices were posted to protect our IP. I'm doing everything I can to encourage the growth of our fan network as I hope I can learn from everything that I consider to have been an error on the part of the company I had helped for so many hours.

GLN: What exactly makes Blood Bowl a good game, in your opinion?

Tom: The background story for one (which is why it was a major error in my opinion to do what they did with the CRP). I also think that the flavour you can get from the different playstyles of the 24 different races mixed with the strategy elements of the game make it one that you come back to time and time again.

Tom: There are certain board games that I play that I win a lot. What I like about Blood Bowl is that there are so many factors that can allow a good strategist to win consistently but not always. It's an Any Given Sunday type of board game and I think that is a major part of what makes it fun. But I think without the backstory that the game has allowed itself to have in the past... It would be a shadow of what it is now. I hope GW realizes that and someday soon puts the background material back in the CRP as its a good part of what I think makes the game great.

GLN: What is in store for you in the future, in respects to Blood Bowl?

Tom: I hope at this time to go back to being another coach. I'll play in as many tournaments as I can get to. I'll answer as many questions about the CRP rules online as I can since I had a hand in writing or at least typing up all of them. And I'll do what I can as to help keep Blood Bowl growing throughout the world when opportunities present themselves.

GLN: Do you have any last message for the Grotty Little Newspaper readers?

Tom: For all the bad things that have happened to me with relationship to GW over the last 6 months, I'm glad I had the chance to make Blood Bowl a better game. I think the current rules are the best the game has to offer and I'm happy to hear from many folks that non-GW sponsored tournaments continue to grow in size. I think a wonderful Fantasy Football community has grown from the ashes of what GW did to Blood Bowl and I would encourage everyone to continue playing this great game and support the people who are trying to support the game and we'll hopefully all be still talking about this game when it reaches its next 20 year mark (Blood Bowl was 20 years old in 2007).

Tom Anders

The Minotaur Paul HIcks has been incarcerated for the alleged murder of 34 freshly graduated referees. Paul HIcks is known to have set his eyes on the record for Most Minotaur Fouls (In One Game), but has often been sent off while trying to set the record. Referees have warned each other to keep a close eye on Paul HIcks at all times, which angered the Minotaur to no end. Allegedly, the Minotaur was planning to "root out the problem". Paul HIcks was arrested near Altdorf with blood on his hands and horns and is currently awaiting trial, although he is still allowed to play his games, as long as returns to the gaol afterwards. His lawyer, the goblin S. N. Ecky, commented that Paul HIcks is pleading innocence, claiming that "the fella rememberz nuthin' about sumfin' like da".

Paul HIcks in his better days...

Fans all over the Old World are showing their support with large banners with the text: FREE PAUL HICKS!

“Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.”
Bruce Lee von Altdorf – Human Blitzer

Humans are somewhat of an oddity in Blood Bowl. They truly shine at TR 100, starting with one of the strongest rosters, with great positionals and a good number of skills giving free rerolls. However, as the TR increases and other races start developing their stars, humans lose their advantages.

This is mainly due to the average physical stats that humans have: skilled ST3 AG3 players can compete (and even own) ST4 or AG4 players if the latter have no skills, but as soon as the strong and agile types skill up, humans’ biggest early advantage, reliability, loses its appeal.

Humans come with a strong “Jack of all trades” flavor: they can do everything, and yet they don’t excel at anything. In Blood Bowl, where extreme specialization usually pays off, this is mainly a flaw, and humans are often considered a subpar race at TR 200+.

In my opinion, humans deserve more than this. While they have no main strengths, they also have very few weaknesses, and there’s very few tricks they can’t at least “try” to pull off on the pitch. When dealing with humans, one should always remember that quantity has a quality of its own.

“People do not lack Strength. They lack Will.”
Victor Hugo – Human Catcher

I can imagine a new coach staring at the standard human roster with a “meh” look… everything looks average, there is no Chaos Warrior, there is no Wardancer, there is no Gutter Runner. Simply, there is no star to base your game plans around. So, what’s good about a human roster?

Humans are FAST.
Don’t let AG3 fool you into thinking that humans lack mobility: humans have four MA7 blitzers and up to four MA8 catchers. That’s FAST. That’s faster than Dark Elves. That’s faster than High Elves. That’s faster than Pro Elves. Actually, on a Blood Bowl pitch that’s faster than anything that’s not a rat or a tree-hugger.
And speed doesn’t just come into play when there’s a End Zone to reach. Movement is a critical, and highly underrated, stat. It makes you reach better positioning with fewer Go for It rolls. It makes it easier to redeploy on defense. It makes it possible to press the opponent’s ball carrier earlier.

Humans can adapt.
Orcs bash. Chaos kills. Elves dodge. Dark elves run. Skaven die. What about Humans? Well, the nice thing about humans is that they can do all of the above, depending on the opponent.
Humans have five players with strength access and four players with agility access. It is five Guards/Mighty Blows and up to four blodgers we are talking about. When facing elves and other low AV opponents, humans can use their higher number of Guards to cage and go for the numerical advantage through blocks and fouls while controlling the clock, basically following the standard Orc approach to Blood Bowl. When facing slow grinding opponents, they can use their superior speed for a quick score and, even more important, they can put up an extremely adaptable defense – which is very difficult to penetrate – while pressing the ball carrier, not unlike elves.

Human Stars rock.
While not that important in casual play, Human Stars become a decisive factor in tournaments. Zug is a solid choice for a mere 60k, and Morg, Griff and the Count are three of the most impressive stars of Blood Bowl (if not THE three most impressive), and match-winners all by themselves. Add Zara against undead, and it just isn’t fair. Stashing enough gold to ensure a good tournament run can be difficult for Humans, but with such an array of quality options, it’s almost always worth it.

“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
Vince Lombardi – Blood Bowl Coach

There’s two different aspects of the development of a successful human team that need to be taken into consideration: the first one is about skills choices and strategic options , while the second is about in-game tactics. Both are vital, and while I might examine them in different sections, it’s important to remember that both aspects work together and are very closely related.

Linemen:
Human linemen are a happy, reliable and expendable bunch of soon-to-be-dead players . The epitome of the cannon fodder, human linemen are born with a thankless task. They can survive a few hits, and they can dodge if necessary, so their entire life is spent keeping Chaos Warriors, Black Orcs and Sauri occupied, sucking up blocks after blocks in an effort to force the opposing lines to open or waste time maiming useless 6/3/3/8 no skill guys. Like every decent cannon fodder, linemen should get Block and Dirty Player as soon as possible, and later take Tackle. One lucky boy will take Kick and save himself a lot of pain by leaving LoS duties to others, but apart from that there’s little joy in a lineman’s short and violent career. The only real way for a lino to become a trusted and valuable resource to the team is to roll a stat increase or a double for Guard. As a matter of fact, an unspoken rule among humans says that a Guard lino should be immediately promoted to Blitzer status and should consequently receive care and attention from his coach.

Throwers:
One thing to remember about throwers is that they fail. They are there to provide a Plan B to your attack schemes, but unless they roll +AG you better use them as a backup or as running ballcarriers. Accurate and Block should be first choices, while the third can be either Tackle (having a defensive blitzer with Sure Hands is very important against elves) or, if you really like passing, Safe Throw.
Doubles can go on Dodge (best choice if you like the running game) or Strong Arm (if you really really really like feeling like an elf and you don’t mind bashing your head in despair on the wall every other game). All stat increases should be taken.

Catchers:
The unexpected game winners, a battery of developed catchers can turn the tide of every game by making your defensive drive a nightmare for your opponent. Forget about offensive catchers: MA8 will work just fine without Sprint, Sure Feet or Leap. Go for the defensive route, and get Block and Sidestep to turn the useless av7 little guys into highly effective weapons to attack (and stick to) the opponent’s ball carrier; Diving Tackle at 31 spp is just the cherry on top, but must be noted that this approach, while very effective, makes your catchers’ lifespan as short as a fruit fly’s…
An alternate route is having Dirty Player catchers. I’m not sure about risking the most mobile player on the pitch for fouling, but sure it’s a way to have your little and fast boys live a little longer.
I usually only have three catchers at any given time on my team. Their lack of strength makes it difficult for the team as a whole to fight back, and on defence two AV7s are more than enough for my likings… so I use two on the pitch and one as a reserve. Four catchers probably inflate TR a bit too much for their real use, mainly because I think numbers are important and four easy-to-break players are just too dangerous to have.
Dauntless is the perfect choice for catchers in case of doubles. All stat increases should be taken.

Blitzers:
The core of every human team, they provide the strength and the speed necessary to win games. As such, they need Guard as soon as possible, followed by a mix of Mighty Blow and Tackle to round up the casualties inflicted by the team. After that, it’s either Shadowing or Strip Ball.
On doubles, both Stand Firm (my personal choice) and Dodge are excellent choices. Get both and your player will become extra-awesome. Some very good coaches also like to have a Frenzy player on their team, a choice I’m not particularly fond of because I like to have total control over my assists. All stat increases should be taken, because all of them make your blitzers n-times better at what they do: hit and run.

Ogre:
One of the best Big Guys, I use the Ogre in a slightly different way than the mass. Before getting Guard (obvious first skill in all cases except for a double, Block, or +ST), my Ogre does LoS duty soaking up hits on defence and trying to earn three casualties as fast as possible. As soon as he learns how to Guard, though, I take him off LoS to use him as a high strength Guard player and a difficult to move road block. Break Tackle should be the second skill, and Multiple Block the third. On doubles, it’s Block and Stand Firm. Stat increases can be ignored, except for the +ST lucky roll, which is just great.

As you can see from my skills selection and considerations, I think that “live fast and die hard” is the best possible philosophy for a human coach. In order to win games you must commit all your team to a common effort, and it’s very likely that some will fall before it’s all over.

But remember that it won’t always happen! Bashy opponents tend to expect that humans will break just as easily as elves (which won’t happen), and will have little chance of fighting back. My suggestion is that an aggressive approach to bashers often proves them wrong and exposes their own main weakness, which is the lack of mobility. Forcing them to worry about the ball from the get-go, forcing them to redeploy again and again, and showing no fear in front of their heavy-hitting and steamrolling capabilities, you can gain a psychological advantage and a very real tactical one. Bashers have a difficult time when things don’t break fast, and they usually panic if they need to find an alternate path after the first one is successfully shut.
Of course, I know that keeping a cage from forming, while an ideal situation, is difficult; on the other hand, I always try to encourage myself by thinking that reforming it once it has been busted is even more difficult.

Against agile types, things are a bit trickier. It’s not about psychology, it’s about their goddamn AG4! Elves are used to getting hit and are usually very cautious about it, so your grinding style must be patient and flawless, but as violent as possible from the very start. Dirty Players provide an excellent solution to elves who come too close, and losing a human lineman to a scrupulous referee is almost always worth the trade if the victim of the foul is a skilled elf.
As a last note, it is worth mentioning that, compared to slow grinding races like Dwarfs and Khemri, Humans can control the clock just fine but are still able, if needed, to pull off a reasonably easy two turns Touchdown (or even an one-turn one).

Offence:
Humans can be very effective if they focus all of their strength in a single breach, and make it count. Also, with high movement and decent agility, they can retreat, reorganize, and try again with little effort. The one thing that they cannot do, however, is trying to control all the pitch. They are strong as a group, but weak as individuals.
Your blitzers should work like a pack of wolves, hitting together, providing each other assists for maximum damage, and controlling their portion of the field, presumably where you are hiding the ball. The Linemen and the Ogre should be used to tie up the opposition in other areas and to deny the opponent precious reinforcements where he needs them the most, i.e. in the breach opened by your blitzers.
Scoring with blitzers is nice and should be encouraged. But with a strong pack of blitzers protecting the ball, even a lineman can “safely” cover the distance to the End Zone. Catchers, unless you really need to skill them up, can be used either as a backup plan or as a bait: in my experience, to be honest, they often end up filling both roles at the same time.

Defence:
Catchers (and occasionally blitzers) should be used to pierce the opposing lines early in the drive, and to threaten the ball from behind (ahem). Sticking a catcher to the opponent’s ball carrier forces the opponent to use his Blitz action to free the ball, and if you are able to decide where your opponent is going to use his precious Blitz, you are halfway to victory because it means that you are controlling the game.
Be cautious about swarming into the opponent’s half, though: overcommittment is responsible for a lot of losses in Blood Bowl, so weight carefully how many resources you can afford to send as infiltrators.
Also, remember that the humans’ true strength is in the numbers. If you let your opponent spread your blitzers and isolate them, you are in for a world of hurt. Isolated, your players cannot stand the mobility of agile teams or the brute strength of the bashers, so for every resource you commit to a solitary task (be it man-marking an opposing players, or infiltrate the opponent’s backfield) you have to calculate the net gain. An unskilled lineman tying up a Multiple Block Claw brute is a sensible choice. A block tackle guard blitzer tying up an unskilled Black Orc is a precious waste of resources and probably worth a dodge roll in order to disengage and reorganize.

Last but not least: Rerolls!
Chances are you’re going to end up with some unused rerolls when a half is over. If that’s the case, you are either having very good dice or you’re doing something wrong. Humans can do a fairly number of nasty things (mainly, dodge into impossible places) with relative ease if you’ve got yourself a reroll to spare. After all, a dodge is 67% without reroll and goes up to 89% with a reroll! Even dodging into a tackle zone is a 75% chance of success with a reroll.
Don’t be shy, and remember that most of the times these stunts surprise your opponent, which is always a nice thing. Surprised opponents are forced to quickly reconsider their game plans, and that’s a primary source of bad plays and tactical mistakes for you to exploit.

“How I learned to stop worrying and love the Orcs.”
Stanley Kubrick – Ogre

This is it.
I really hope these few tips can make it easier for you human coaches to find your way. They worked quite well for me in my long (and still lasting) struggle to become a decent human coach, but there’s always room for improvement, so I encourage you all to just use these as guidelines to develop your own affective strategies.

In my opinion Humans are one of the best races in Blood Bowl, and probably the one providing the most excitement because most of the times you’re supposed to be the underdog.
To put it bluntly, if you lose you can blame the race, but if you win, it was your tactical genius to take the win home! What can beat that?

So.
Now you’re covered from head to toes.. All that’s left is that you go out and make a human team!

Welcome to The Art of Zen Noobism! Most of you that read this will think: "What is he talking about?". Time for some explanation. There is a basic difference between a Noob and a Zen Noob. The difference is that a noob does not know any better and does things that shouldn’t work out of ignorance and pure luck. One-die blocks, needless dodges, GFI's and such that succeed far more than they should. We have all played versus coaches that make us shake our head and go "WHAT IS HE DOING??!" as we bang our head in frustration. And of course, they believe that they are talented and play solid Blood Bowl. This is not meant to be offensive to anyone. It is simply what many have observed.

As a noob matures and learns more about the game, they start to make smarter tactical decisions. They make the 2D blocks instead of 1D. They mark the ball carrier, form cages, and generally develop basic strategy. Given time and energy they usually settle in to the mid range of coaches. Good fun to play, good challenge and have a solid grasp of the game. (BTW: This is where I feel I fall.)

Then we have the next level of coaches. They have a real solid grasp of the game. They plan their teams out in advance. They are the ones the rest of us ask questions to in the forums about skills and the such. We all know who they are. Awesome coaches to play. Most are more than willing to help out and give advice. But to be brutally honest, they are a level ahead of most of us. Watching them play is usually an exciting time and if you pay attention you can learn A LOT from them. I don’t think I really need to name names here. We all know who they are. Then there is the Art of Zen Noobism. It is simple. I sum it all up in one little phrase:

"When all else fales, reach for your inner noob."

Now, I know what you are all thinking. No, I'm not joking. Here is what I mean. Zen Noobism is the ability to not think about the chances of failure. You know as an experienced coach that certain things will most times fail you. We tend to do things by a set game plan. Move the assist in. Mark the ball. Cover the down field players. We all do it.
Now, where we get into trouble is when everything is failing at once. We can not dodge with Amazons or our Blodgers. That Uber STR Mummy just triple skulled versus a stunty. Your players are blown off the pitch like leaves. What do you do? Well, if you're like me, whine some. Yes, I whine. There is another option that I will use if I can get into the right state of mind.

Zen Noobism.
Suspend your belief that the impossible can not work. In fact, stop thinking at all. Feel the game. Let it flow from you like water. It usually happens when I am playing a game that I feel I have little or no chance of winning. I figure that I have nothing to lose and I just relax and have fun. My whole goal of the game changes. It's no longer about winning or losing. It becomes about seeing exactly how far I can push the envelope.
Let me give you some examples, I played the Bunnies with my Sumo Shoulders. Undead vs Dorfs. Ro vs Synn. Synn GTR both halfs. By the last few turns I had one dorf left on the field. The entire time was spend doing everything I could to get a blitz on a player. Didn't matter if it was 1D or -2 or -3D. It's the fun aspect that I was embracing. It was the challenge of still making Synn work. That and having one dorf left on the field when all was said and done.

The concept of Zen Noobism does not even consider the odds in any given action. It is the pure and free flow of action. The Zen Noobist does not consider that the odds are against him or that his action will fail. It will simply work or not.

This article has been made possible with the help of assistant coach veteran C. Roak Toadworthy.

The Slann are one of the oldest creatures around in the world of Blood Bowl. In forgotten aeons, the Slann came from outer space and landed on the world. They found themselves stranded on this world, with no way to leave the world. In the earliest days they waited for rescue to come, but there never came any. In the many years that followed, the Slann are responsible for the creation of many other races, like the Elves, Dwarves and Humans. Among all these races, the Lizardmen are their close servants.

Toadworthy: All your pitch are belong to us!

The Lizardmen, who have always acted as their servants, have made most Slann go lazy and fat. The stereotypical Slann is a bloated frog that is carried around by Sauri. It is an image that young Slann Blood Bowl players passionately oppose! Slann Blood Bowl players are very trained and fit, and have an amazing ability for insane jumping and incredible mobility.

Toadworthy: Slann coaches fit the image of a fat, bloated frog much better.

Manoeuvrable
Interceptions
Possibility for Unusual Tactics
Cheap Rerolls
Kings of Positioning
Leap – Don't Dodge

Fragile
No Pass access
Challenging due to Advanced Positioning
Reroll Drainers

Toadworthy: It is a hard job to lead a Slann team to truly high TV, as they do not hold up against an overly bashing team all too well. Yet a developed Slann team has absolutely insane potential and can do nearly anything well in the hands of a good coach: both scoring as well as a directed attack on the opposing ball carrier.

Let's face it. In a certain way, this team has just one real trick. That trick is leaping. Coaching the Slann team therefore requires you to feel and know when you're not leaping enough, and when you're leaping too much. It is surprisingly easy to recognise a rookie Slann coach. They either do not leap enough, or they leap too much.

When a coach is not leaping enough, he is not realising that using Leap properly is what makes a Slann team run. Every player on the team can leap. If you are hardly using the Leap skill, then you are ignoring the very nature of the Slann player. Remember this: leaping is, on a player without the Dodge skill, as easy and as hard as dodging! That means you should always leap away instead of dodge away. The only exception to this rule is when you want to leap later on in your movement.

Toadworthy: There can be only one! (Leap, that is. Per turn, per player.)

When a coach is leaping too much, he is forgetting that the key to winning a match is roll the least amount of dice throughout the match to do what you need to do. If you are leaping away instead of just going for a one-die block, think whether the repositioning of the player is worth it. Perhaps just doing nothing is better, or gambling for the pow is worth it. The leap is pretty much just like the dodge for other teams: if you do it too much, you are missing the point. If you're not doing it enough, then the other team is going to out-position you.

As the team develops, it can get a little more difficult as you get more and more of the Dodge skill on your players. Sometimes you are going to have to decide whether to leap or dodge away, and the answer might not always be apparent. Dodging might be safer, but if you're prepared to burn a Reroll, the leap might be a better choice as it often gets you to your destination quicker. Then again, you might need that Reroll later in the turn. There are no easy answers here, as you need to get a feeling for these kind of situations, as they are so complex. Just make sure that you do always think about both options, as sometimes the answer is obvious when you start thinking about it.

Toadworthy: To dodge or to leap, that is the question.

Kroxigor – The Pain Magnet

0-1
Kroxigor
140,000
6 5 1 9
Loner, Bone-head, Mighty Blow, Prehensile Tail, Thick Skull
S / GAP

The Kroxigor is really the only source of raw power in the Slann team. That makes it a very valuable Big Guy. If properly positioned throughout a match, this burly lizard will make life a lot easier for the rest of your players, who are quite fragile after all. In addition, his movement is pleasantly high, so he can keep up with the rest of the team as long as he isn't suffering from his Bone-head. If only he wasn't 140K, which is a hefty price for a team that already has to spend 110K on its Blitzers!

Development: There is only one proper way to develop a Kroxigor on a Slann team. He is designed to be hit first of all, hit second of all. This is the road to making your Kroxigor a real roadblock.

Normal: Guard, Grab/Stand Firm/Juggernaut/Break Tackle, Multiple Block
Doubles: Block, Dodge/Jump Up/Side Step/Frenzy
Stat increases: On a no-doubles 10, take the AV increase. MA 6 is already pretty good, and your Kroxigor is there to take the pain. On a doubles-10, just take a skill. Don't bother with the AG increase, but do take the STR increase.

Toadworthy: As long as the opposing team pays attention to the big lizard, it's all good, as it frees up your other players.

0-4
Blitzers
110,000
7 3 3 8
Diving Tackle, Jump Up, Leap, Very Long Legs
GAS / P

Slann Blitzers are one of the most expensive Blitzer positionals in the game. And for a whopping 110K, what do you get? A player that does not even have Block or AG 4 for a real solid leap. It makes one wonder why the Slann Blitzer is worth the money in the first place.

Development: There are several different roles the Slann Blitzer can perform and that is also why there is a different development route for each of these archetypes.

The Cage Croaker: The Cage Croaker is meant to play a vital role in breaking down cages. They leap in a cage or position around the cage to lend a hand with Guard, allowing other players to leap in and take down the ball carrier. Besides Guard, there are skills for optimal positioning in these scrums (Stand Firm, Grab, Side Step) and maintaining it (Block, Stand Firm). Mighty Blow can be vital in winning the numbers game in a tight scrum.

Normal/Doubles: Block/Guard, Stand Firm or Side Step, Grab/Mighty Blow
Stat increases: AV and STR increases are wonderful for The Cage Croaker as to remain on the pitch and hit as hard as possible. AG increases are ideal for leaping in for a vital Guard assist. In short, all stat increases should be taken, with MA stepping aside for AV.

Toadworthy: Ribbit! Who's getting croaked now?

The Amphibious Ninja: Catchers might be great and fabulous at ball handling, yet they are also often taken out of play because they have a big target on their back. On other moments a Catcher just does not have what it takes with a mere STR 2, since it is then very easy to be hit with a 3D block. In short, it can be very useful to have a back-up in the form of a ball-handling blitzer. This is what the Amphibious Ninja is for. Dodge and Block are there to remain standing at all times, Catch and Sure Hands to take proper care of the ball – and not lose it through a Strip Ball player, and Side Step and Fend are there to avoid surfs, Frenzy and nasty positions that the Blitzer might not get out of anymore. The Amphibious Ninja is your frog to rely on carrying the ball around a little more solidly than the Catcher would.

Normal/Doubles: Dodge, Block, Catch, Side Step/Fend/Sure Hands
Stat increases: All stat increases are worth taking. MA should be taken before AV, as it is great to avoid getting hit in the first place or running for the ball. AG allows for leaping and STR for taking a hit without going down.

Toadworthy: Yes, ninjas are better than pirates. Although we Slann would make good pirates too.

The Sticky Shadow: The Cage Croaker might be great against cracking cages, and thus is best against bashy opponents, he is not very optimal against dodgy elves and other evasive players, like Gutter Runners. For that, you will need a Sticky Shadow. This little bugger is well adepted to actually steal the ball, no matter how fast and dodgy the player. The Sticky Shadow is also often the Blitzer that actually makes the leap in the cage and knocks down the ball carrier. Wrestle, Tackle and Strip Ball are there for ideal ball stealing, and Tackle and Shadowing in combination with Diving Tackle the player already has, makes for a sticky shadow that can be a real menace. That makes the player ideal for defence. Mighty Blow is there to stun those players instead of just leave them prone, which can be vital to buy some time to get a counter-offence going.

Normal/Doubles: Wrestle, Tackle/Shadowing/Strip Ball, Mighty Blow
Stat increases: To benefit the most from Shadowing, it is well worth taking a MA increase above the AV increase, as well as to keep up with the fastest of players. Naturally, AG and STR increases are priceless as always for Slann.

Toadworthy: Just make sure he doesn't keep sticking around when he is not wanted. They make for awkward guests for dinner, I can tell you.

The Hybrid Toad: The Slann team is a fragile one. It will often endure through harsh times where the most vital of players, Catchers and Blitzers, will need to be retired because of injuries or are killed. When you don't have a lot of Blitzers around, you don't want to have two new Blitzers and one Sticky Shadow against a Dwarf team with heavy Guard. Similarly, you don't want to have that one Cage Croaker when you are facing Skaven. That is one reason to depend on the Hybrid Toad. The other is the fact the Hybrid Toad is what the Slann Blitzer should be: very flexible and efficient all over in many circumstances. Wrestle and Guard allows this player to feel at home in a quick feat of cage destruction as well as in taking down a Gutter Runner. Thereafter the Hybrid Toad picks a little from everything available. A proper Hybrid Toad is always useful.

Normal/Doubles: Wrestle, Guard, Dodge/Stand Firm, Mighty Blow/Strip Ball/Tackle/Catch
Stat increases: MA should be taken over AV, for optimal positioning. As always, AG and STR are true blessings for this multi-tasking beauty.

Toadworthy: Practically a chameleon. Except that he doesn't change colours. Well, at least most don't.

0-4
Catchers
80,000
7 2 4 7
Diving Catch, Leap, Very Long Legs
GA / SP

Once you play with Slann Catchers, you'll soon learn to appreciate how these guys play. Leaping on a 2+ is insane and allows positioning possibilities and ball grabbing that you have never dreamed of before. Slann Catchers are in many ways the bread and butter of your game. Without them, you're going to have a hard time scoring, as these guys are the motor of the team. On a good day, you'll be 2-0 ahead by half-time and if you still got one or two around, you should have won the game already.

Leapus Immortalis:

The goal? Catchers are already great for scoring, so instead, this frog is developed to be kept alive as long as possible. Block, Dodge, Fend and Side Step keep him clean from hits and safe from surfs. Jump Up is there to get out of nasty situations faster.

Normal/Doubles: Block/Dodge, Fend, Jump Up/Side Step
Stat increases: Everything is useful. Take +MA before +AV: increased mobility is more important than the occasional hit.

Leapus Flexibulus:

This guy is meant to be the reliable Catcher, who uses up the least amount of Re-Rolls, and can be set into any other needed role. He can do anything, anywhere.

Normal: Dodge, Catch/Side Step, Block, Sure Hands/Sure Feet
Doubles: Nerves Of Steel, Pass
Stat increases: Everything is useful. Take +MA before +AV: increased mobility is more important than the occasional hit.

Leapus Aggressivus:

Blitzers are good and all for a bit of punch, but they are not as mobile and useful for the strategic blitz. The Leapus Aggressivus is the suicidal Catcher, who tries to steal the ball and take it out.

Normal/Doubles: Wrestle, Dauntless, Strip Ball, Dodge, Side Step/Jump Up
Stat increases: Everything is useful. Take +AV before +MA. Often enough, this guy will get punched when it goes wrong, and you want him to get prone instead of KO or worse.

Toadworthy: An aggressive Catcher is good and all, but make sure he still realises he is just a squishy amphibian.

Some races have very useful Linemen. In a Chaos Pact or Chaos team, for example, the Linemen quickly become important players on their own as they advance. For the Slann team, the same cannot be said. While Slann Linemen are not the equivalent of zombies, for example, they are still definitely fodder as long as they do not roll stat increases or at least two doubles. For most Slann Linemen, skills like Block/Wrestle followed by Fend will do. The rare Lineman that survives much longer can go for skills like Dauntless, Frenzy, Strip Ball, Tackle and Pro. In truth though, beyond two skills the Slann Lineman is better off without advancing more, as you want your skills on the positionals.Possibly you can get a Dirty Player on one or two. On doubles, Guard and Dodge are invaluable.

Toadworthy: Who? Oh, those guys. They're there to get croaked. It's not like they aren't getting paid enough for it...

Let's face it: Catchers are what makes you win games at low TV and Blitzers are awfully pricey, especially since you need at least four Re-Rolls to make a Slann team properly reliable. So, why not invest in four Catchers, the Re-Rolls to back them up and finally add in a 12th frog since Slann are so fragile?

4 x Catcher = 320K
8 x Lineman = 480K
4 x RR = 200K

Toadworthy: Quick to score, quick to crash. You've got four wandering targets and little to back them up with.

Blitzers might be expensive, they are also insanely good at times, especially after some development. You can't afford not to start with them. Besides, you don't really need four Catchers yet, as long as you make sure your Catchers don't get hit. And that's what those Blitzers are for!

2 x Blitzer = 220K
2 x Catcher = 160K
7 x Lineman = 420K
4 x RR = 200K

Slann Linemen aren't really that useful. The team really needs its positionals to work its magic. So you can't really afford to go without a lot of Catchers and some Blitzers alongside. There's really only one thing that can be cut though: Re-Rolls. You might need a bit of luck at first, 'till you get the money to add on those missing Re-Rolls, but you'll compensate in skill.

4 x Catcher = 320K
3 x Blitzer = 330K
4 x Lineman 240K
2 x RR = 100K
1 x FF or 10K in treasury

Toadworthy: Please tell me that he landed on his legs...

The Kroxigor is such a good Big Guy and such a magnet to draw the punches of the opposing team, that it would be a shame not to have him around. Ideally, the Kroxigor attracts the attention of the main crowd with the help of some Linemen and the Catchers take care of the rest.

1 x Kroxigor = 140K
4 x Catcher = 320K
6 x Lineman = 360K
3 x RR = 150K
3 x FF or 30K in treasury, or switch a Catcher to a Blitzer

GLN: There are currently many frictions between Ranked and Blackbox. Some believe that Blackbox should be the main competitive division when FUMBBL switches to Kalimar's new client and the new FFB rules, while others believe that it should more or less be as it is now. How do you see this relationship between Ranked and Blackbox evolve when FFB hits the scene? Will it be a popularity contest, with the winner being the main competitive division, or will it remain as it is now, with both divisions having Majors, but Ranked having the bigger ones?

Christer: Ranked and Blackbox are two fundamentally different divisions with very different core purposes. Yes, they're both competitive divisions and they both use some kind of ranking system. However, the core concept of Ranked (and the site as a whole) has been to allow people to choose their opponents freely. Meanwhile, Blackbox was more or less designed to force you to play against whoever you meet. Ranked allows people to be somewhat more careful in their matchups if they choose to play that way, and prepare their teams for the majors. In Blackbox, you effectively have to roll the dice every time and risk getting paired against a heavy basher team.

Once Kalimar's Fantasy Football client is considered bug-free enough to be officially launched, I don't really see things changing in the short term. I see no reason to not have one open-play division and also allow blackbox style games. To be quite honest, I haven't fully decided how to make this. Most likely, though, the first division will be open play and be similar to Ranked. Once that's up and running, I may look into the blackbox system and migrate this to FFB as well. I might even run the blackbox system in the same division to see how that works.

I don't really compare Ranked and Blackbox in the "main division" sense as it is now. Ranked hosts more games than Blackbox and is the oldest (and first) division we have on the site so it naturally gets a bit more attention from the staff because of that. When it comes to tournaments, we did consider mirroring the major tournaments into the blackbox, but ended up taking a path where tournaments are not shared across the divisions. I, personally, have no objection to extending the tournament scene in Blackbox to be as fleshed out as the one in Ranked. There is, however, a logistical problem with tournaments in that they do require a large amount of work by the staff. Thankfully, PurpleChest is doing the bulk of the organisational work for this together with his staff of tournament staff. He, and the rest of the staff, deserve much more kudos than they get for this mammoth task. It's fantastic to see how the official tournament scene expands under PurpleChest's guidance.

The bottom line here is that the tournaments are bigger in Ranked due to the fact that the division is older, not because it's a "main competitive" division.

GLN: Aside from how Blackbox will look when it is migrated to FFB, how it looks now is not a finalised state of the division either. You have mentioned in the past that Blackbox is still in a state of flux/transition. The best example of this is the Blackbox Central page and the BWR list. Can we expect any significant changes in this respect before Blackbox turns to FFB (such as BWR lists with active coaches only or, as you hinted at in the past, with the old Faction medals being introduced somehow)?

Christer: Improving the state of the blackbox is unfortunately not high on my todo list at the moment. My current focus is on getting Fantasy Football out of the beta state it is in now. After that, I'm looking at continuing the L changes I have planned.

After those two pretty significant undertakings, I'm not entirely sure what I will prioritise next. Blackbox central is one of the things on the list. I am also hoping to be able to get around to improving the overview page at some point. I've also been toying with the idea of putting some more work into the buddy list system, adding coach-based top 10 lists and other various small improvements.

To answer your direct question: No, I don't expect to be able to put alot of effort into improving the blackbox before FFB is in place. You never know though, since I might suddenly get an inspired idea and make an overhaul.

GLN: That brings us to the division that is going to get some love soon: League. You have already hinted that there would be changes to the division, or better yet, options. The question is: what is going to change for L and when can we expect these changes?
Are we talking of an utopian division L that allows for private leagues with custom rosters? More administrative powers for league managers?

Christer: The plan is to start with updating the group page layout to allow for more flexibility. Some of this work is already completed, but the new design isn't fully realised at the moment.

After that, I'll get into the more complex features I have considered. I am planning to give league admins the ability to add custom rosters, allow creation of teams outside the 100TR/1000TV rule and give group staff the ability to give out prizes to teams such as gold, FF and possibly even special positionals. Outside that, I'm planning to add new ways of communicating with the group members, and make the group page a better "home" page for the league. For example, staff will be able to add custom pages to the group (rules, various top lists etc), and also have the ability to post news entries that are local to the group. I'm also considering the possibility of having the site track statistics for groups and leagues.

I can't really tell when these changes are going to be completed. My plan is to roll them out one feature at a time to allow some time to fix bugs and give the community ability to give feedback.

GLN: When you asked in the forum for artwork for the new client, you probably weren't expecting the art that is now being presented to us by Knut_Rockie and ryanfitz. What do you think of it and how important do you think it is to have artwork of that quality for the new client?

Christer: The artwork is truly awesome. I'm very happy that someone stepped forward and put in the crazy amount of work it involves to create a full set of images. While it's not truly essential to have the images, it adds a lot to the overall feel of the game. It's also very good to be sure that we won't get any trouble from the copyright holder of those images in the future.

GLN: In this same GLN issue, there is an interview with Tom Anders, who is involved with the company that makes Elfball. Do you think it is possible that in the distant future, a game like Elfball and possibly Blood Bowl variants like Dungeon Bowl, Doom Bowl and others might be playable on FUMBBL as well? Would you think that would be a desirable goal? In other words, if someone was prepared to code a client for it, would FUMBBL make room for this?

Christer: It's certainly possible that we could add support for other games here. However, it would be a truly massive amount of work to implement the site support for it, but it's certainly not out of the question. I am absolutely open for a dialogue with some developer about that possibility.

GLN: You have been playing Blood Bowl since 1995 and invested in FUMBBL since around 2002. Are you ever tired of the game or tired of putting all the effort in running the site? If so, how do you deal with these Blood Bowl blues?

Christer: Of course I get a bit tired of working on the site at times. The thing is that the site is sort of like a hobby to me. I enjoy developing things and have fun adding stuff to the site. The main thing that keeps me going is the fact that I can work on whatever part of the site I feel like, without feeling I absolutely MUST finish some part of it. I'm sure you've noticed that things tend to happen in bursts. Sometimes I feel inspired and push out lots of things, while at other times nothing much changes. What I do to "recharge" is to simply spend time on other games. The same goes for playing the actual game itself. I still find it to be quite fun, even though I haven't had time to actually play much lately. Maybe that'll change once we get fantasy football properly up and running. Although I'm sure there will always be new projects for me to work on... Wink

GLN: It has been the object of much discussion in the forum (the thread made it to 24 pages so far):
How will old teams be converted to the new rules when time comes? Considering how divided opinions are on this matter, it is a good thing FUMBBL is not a democracy. However, it is also means everyone is very eager to learn the answer. Will there be a 'complete reset', with only new teams arriving to the scene? Will old teams be reset to 1000 TV? Or will there be a system of grandfathering of some sorts?
If you are not certain of the answer yet, is it possible that you could still share your thoughts so far?

Christer: I haven't fully decided yet to be quite honest. As you said, everyone has an opinion and I have to figure out something that keeps as many as possible happy. That being said, I'm pretty sure I won't reset old teams. That would serve absolutely no purpose at all in my opinion. I'm leaning towards a model where old teams can be transferred to the new division, possibly with a tag on the teams in case they were in a grandfathered state.

One of my major concerns with the transition is that I don't want people to throw away the extensive background and history of their teams in order to progress. The rulebook even implies that old teams can be grandfathered in and I'd like to be able to find a way to do this in a nice and easy way.

Another thing I have been considering is the possibility of allowing teams to be copied rather than transferred. That is; allowing a team to exist in both R and F at the same time. We'll see though.

GLN: How do you feel about the return of the GLN?

Christer: I've always been a big fan of the GLN. It's a lot of fun to read and I'm always happy when the members of the community get involved and add content to the site, be it portraits, help out with tournaments or staff duties or articles to the GLN. It makes all the work I put in myself feel worthwhile.

Like many coaches who have become established over a long time in any gaming community, I decided to go beyond the standard one-off game treadmill and set additional career goals for myself. Some coaches have lists of famous teams they intend to play (and defeat). Others strive to play an impressive number of games with a certain race or team. Another popular goal is to try to win at least one of every level of SMACK tournament.

Plorg's Goal: Win a SMACK Tournament with Halflings.

Nobody had done this before and at the time of this writing nobody else has done it since. This Rookie SMACK was won back in the days when fresh teams with zero games still had an effect on Coach Rating, which might have discouraged many coaches from throwing their Flings into the ring. The most surprising part of this story is that it only took two SMACK attempts to succeed. Now that this goal has been achieved, Plorg will impart his knowledge so that others may follow.

1) Treasury Treasury Treasury The success of a Halfling team comes from its Treasury. Unless you lose a Treeman, each replacement costs only 30000. Do you have otherwise healthy players missing your next game? If you have the cash to spare, retire and replace them. A starting roster of 2 Treemen + 13 Halflings + 9 FF + Apothecary leaves you with 250000 to spend on the first three games. Note that this roster does not mention any team Rerolls. This brings us to the next point...

2) Chefs are better than Rerolls Now to cover one of the finer points of the Halfling frontloading meta-game. The RookSmack Flings started with zero(0) team Rerolls. Why? At team creation, they could buy one Reroll for 60000 to use in each game thereafter. On the other hand, each click of the Wizard button will rent one single-game Chef for 20000 and they can rent as many Chefs per game as they can afford. Each Chef has a 5/6 chance per half to steal a Reroll from the other team and give it to the Halflings. The cost of each team Reroll is equal to the cost of one Chef for each of the next three(3) games. If a team is expected to play for only three games (such as a three-round SMACK Tournament), it is more cost effective to rent the other team's Rerolls instead of buying their own.

3) Deeproot Strongbranch For 90000 any Halfling team can rent Deeproot for one game.

* ST 7 with Block and Mighty Blow is very effective against Rookie teams who do not have much Block themselves.

* Three Treemen on the Line of Scrimmage is an intimidating sight. This is especially true against bashy teams who expect to win by casualty attrition. Most of their prime bashing time comes from the three or four hits at the LoS right after the kickoff. When the Line of Scrimmage has three ST 6(7) AV 10 Thick Skull Stand Firm, the basher casualty game can be shut down entirely.

* Lastly, remember that Deeproot can use the team Rerolls that your Chefs have stolen. For important things like throwing the ball-carrier teammate for a TD, using Deeproot lets you reroll those fumbled passes.

4) Be Lucky In the interest of full disclosure, it should be mentioned that RookSmack Hills 2nd Brigade would probably not have won their SMACK if their second and third round opponents had not been injured the game before. Beating a team of eleven Dwarves is a lot easier than beating a team of twelve Dwarves. The same goes for Elves. So not only do you have to be lucky enough to win your own games, you also have to be lucky enough to fight opponents who have already taken some player-removing damage.

That should cover the main strategic points. Hopefully more coaches out there will be inspired to Fling their way into SMACK Tournament wins!

Editors note: Since this was written, 3 other coaches have claimed SMACK titles with Halflings

NEWS REPORT: Sharlak triplet experiment with unconventional secret weapon. Head coach Shattlah explains: "What iz bestezt way of taking down tree? Wez say 'TIMBER!'"

NEWS REPORT: GLN experiments with hiring out cheerleaders for special matches. Cheerleaders currently still in training.

GLN: How is your life outside of Blood Bowl?

Knut_Rockie: Well, with all the work I've been doing on the player portraits it kind of feels like I don't have a life outside of Blood Bowl at the moment! However, I work as a professional artist. I make paintings and exhibit them in private and public galleries across Europe. It's a notoriously fickle existence financially and what with the rather... ahem... 'interesting' financial times we are living through at the moment I also teach fine art in a University part-time. Other than that making or looking at art pretty much dominates my life.

ryanfitz: I currently make a living as a photographer, but before all else I am a dad, my eldest boy just started T-Ball and there isn't much better in life than going to his games and practices.

GLN: What is your history with Blood Bowl? How did you first come into contact with the game and how did you come to FUMBBL?

Knut_Rockie: I guess this will age me immediately but my first ever contact with the game was back in 1989... 21 years ago! I remember that I swapped one of my plastic 40k Titans for one of the 2nd edition plastic humans that came in the boxed set; on reflection it wasn't the smartest trade in history when you consider the relative sizes of the two models, but I just thought the human player looked great. After painting him and admiring him for a few months (I think I may even have incorporated him into a few 40k skirmishes!) I found out the details of the game he came with. The more I found out the more it became an irresistible prospect for me and I soon bought the game itself and became an avid collector of the miniatures. As for FUMBBL, I stumbled across it quite by accident. In fact, you have Wikipedia to thank for the advertising: I was taking a trip down memory lane by reading the article about Blood Bowl on there when I discovered that the game I once loved was alive and well and living in this corner of cyberspace.

ryanfitz: I remember playing one-off blood bowl games back in '94 or '95 with my buddies' copy of the rules. I loved the game, being able to fluff out my team and follow 'my' players, so I picked up my copy and was only able to find a game about 3-4 times a year. I hadn't played a GW game in about 5 years when I heard about Cyanide's release and stumbled across FUMBBL, started up a team and promptly began playing to achieve my 1st losing streak.

GLN: What is your favourite team to play with and what is your least favourite? Why?

Knut_Rockie: This one goes back to my previous answer. Humans have always been my team mainly for fluff but also I like their play style. That humble 2nd Ed. plastic mini of the Human player, which now looks rather unsophisticated, for me summed up everything I liked at that point in time. I remember I got into Blood Bowl at around the same time as the original Speedball game and the similarities were hard to miss, but I was also a massive Judge Dredd fan - all those shoulder pads and helmets really put me in mind of something from that world also... In fact I think the purely fantasy setting of Blood Bowl did not really sink in for me until the 3rd edition made the Warhammer links explicit, prior to that I simply read it as being it's own crazy world; I mean... Chainsaws? Bazookas? Cyborcs?! It simply didn't fit comfortably within any genre and I liked that freedom. As for least favourite... I just can't see the point of the Amazons, they don't seem to fit the background of the game particularly well and the roster seems a bit odd really. Compare it to the way the Norse have had a very interesting set of alterations and I'm left wondering why Amazons weren't similarly fiddled with... If that doesn't sound too obscene!

ryanfitz: Gobbos are the only team that truely understand what Bloodbowl is about, the rest are just cheap or maybe expensive imitations. Only team I've ever played on table top, every time I bust em out I feel like a kid playing with my toys, that such a cool feeling. Never had any desire to play Khemri, and have yet to make an Undead team. Odd, because they seem like they would be fun teams to fluff out.

GLN: What do you think of the new rules set (LRB 5/CRP) in comparison to the old one (LRB 4)?

Knut_Rockie: I must admit to having never played LRB5/CRP (CRP? that's an acronym ripe for abuse if ever I saw one!). However I have read the rules cover to cover as part of my research for the portraits and I must say I rather liked it. Generally I think most of the changes are positive, specifically I like that teams will be less likely to get abandoned after one bad game, hopefully this will encourage coaches to get more of an emotional investment with their team and build an interesting history for them, as for me that is mainly what Blood Bowl is all about. Also the changes to the skills look intriguing, I like how there are elements of balancing going on and that there may be a more interesting spread of skills chosen across the board, in some ways it reminded me of the complexity that the 2nd edition compendium brought to the game. That said I think LRB 4 is a great rule set that plays very well, it's just that the consequences of some outcomes (I'm thinking 'Get The Ref!' combined with a liberal sprinkling of DPs) can really destroy a team's longterm viability.

ryanfitz: I'm not a game designer, so my opinion is nothing more than just one more in a sea of opinions, that being said, some parts look to be great (my goblins get their weapons as positionals!), while other parts ring of pandering (I loved the imbalance of Get The Ref!, and having to be VERY conscious of your Fan Factor rating - heck I even liked ageing even if I didn't like the way niggling injuries were implemented in LRB4).

GLN: How does it make you feel to be part of those responsible for making the new client as good as possible?

Knut_Rockie: I think the new client is a fantastic idea and am hugely impressed by the work that everyone is doing with regards to programming, bug fixing, icons etc. By comparison I'm playing a relatively minor part in this, however if the work ryanfitz and myself are doing helps to enhance the gaming experience of the community at large then I will be delighted.

ryanfitz: I was looking for a way to give back to FUMBBL in some way, I saw Knut_Rockie's original blog posting and hoped I might have a chance to jump in and steal ALL his credit... Smile

GLN: You offered to provide the artwork for the new client. Do you think you over- or underestimated the amount of work required?

Knut_Rockie: It's an interesting question. When I first saw the thread for player portraits appear I must admit that I felt an adrenaline rush, but thought I'd see what the community could come up with before diving in. I already had some Blood Bowl related drawings that I'd been working on in idle moments in my studio sketch books but I really wasn't sure whether they were any good. As the weeks marched on and there did not seem to be any viable solution presenting itself I thought I'd scan a few of the test images I'd been working on and post them on my blog... At that point I didn't think for a minute I'd end up being solely responsible for all the art work. So in answer to the question, no I didn't underestimate the work required, I just didn't think my work would be accepted!

GLN: You have not played many matches yet on FUMBBL. Why are you still willing to spend this much time and effort for the community?

Knut_Rockie: I've really enjoyed my few games on here but there are a couple of external reasons as to why the amount of matches played is so low. First my internet connection is annoyingly unstable, I hate starting a game only to have it be interrupted by a disconnection and know it was my fault. It definitely puts me off my game and forces me to rush my moves. Secondly, I go through periods of having lots of spare time and then other periods where I have absolutely none, finding the time for a game (combined with connection issues) has meant I really have to plan hard when I can actually play. At present I have a window of opportunity where my spare time is such that I can dedicate some serious man hours to making these drawings rather than playing. I'm doing this in the hope that my art work will have a lasting positive impact on the community as a whole (I have a soft spot for you guys!). I may be wrong, but when all these portraits are done it will mean that FUMBBL is the only place in the world that has a artistically credible full set of drawings for every positional and star player in the LRB - maybe it'll even help publicise the site! On a personal level this is a project I've waited 20 years to do, I've been making BB drawings since 1990, so what you are seeing on this site is the culmination of a my youthful ambition!

GLN: What has been the hardest team to draw and why?

Knut_Rockie: I don't think there's been anyone team that's been hard, but there are plenty of individual portraits that have been very tricky though. Orcs are actually much harder to do than you'd think for such a ubiquitous fantasy race. The canonical GW Orc is particularly tough. The hunched back causes loads of perspective headaches as well as problems with proportion and those tusks... Once you've incorporated them they tend to dominate the expression and can be a real pain if you don't take them into account before hand. Also all those shoulder pads! I remember reading an interview with one of the artists who drew Judge Dredd (I forget who) but he said he found Dredd to be one of the hardest characters to do because of all he shoulder pads, chains and buckles he had to draw, well I can say the same goes for Blood Bowl players too. The shoulder pads are a perspective nightmare, if they're not articulated properly they make the whole drawing look totally wrong.

GLN: What has been the most fun to draw and why?

Knut_Rockie: I've been really surprised at how much I've enjoyed drawing the Chaos teams (Pact/Nurgle/Skaven/Chaos) they're really varied and lend themselves to some really dramatic poses and shading. It goes without saying Goblins are a lot of fun as well, they're just so comically nasty!

GLN: Where do you get the inspiration from for drawing these pictures, considering the variety of football poses and pictures of players that are somewhat undefined of how they should look (Nurgle Beast for example)?

Knut_Rockie: I've really looked far and wide for interesting resource materials to help me make these drawings. Firstly I try and locate the most recent and canonical image of the player I am drawing, I always try and use the most recent model as a reference point - this is important for me as it removes some of the subjectivity from this task. By this I mean we all have our own ideas of what a favourite player or position should look like (and I'm no different in that respect) however by being able to refer to an official depiction of the player any arguments in this area are minimised as I can defend any decisions I make. Probably the most 'controversial' team I did was the Wood Elves, I took some liberties with them by adding helmets and extra pads (albeit flimsy) when the GW minis are a little lighter, this was purely an artistic decision, I wanted to make them look a bit more like Wood Elf-football-hybrids and less like a WHFB unit striking football poses, in general I've tried to make all positionals have this football/fantasy-hybrid look whereas for star players I've done this a less. In my mind they need to stand out from the ordinary Joe Schmoe Lineman somehow. In terms of the poses these are usually inspired by the players stats, I will use anything and everything as a reference point for these drawings, be it poses from comics, anatomy books, sports photography... Literally anything so long as it gives me a good sense of how to arrange proportions and perspective to get the pose I'm after. I think the weirdest source material I used was for the Amazons, until then I'd never heard of 'Lingerie Bowl' and after seeing images of it I kind of wish I hadn't! (If anyone is reaching for google be careful it's all fairly NSFW/family unfriendly!) still it was very handy for working out what an Amazon player would actually look like in reality. For undefined positions such as Beast of Nurgle and to some extent the Slann that can be a bit mixed. The Slann were surprisingly easy and fun to draw the Beast was another story. I made about 4 attempts, two were trashed, two I published, both of the published ones have things I like but I'm still keen to have another crack at getting this one right... watch this space! [EDITOR'S NOTE: As you might have noticed, Knut_Rockie has indeed had another crack at the Beast of Nurgle!]

GLN: When you started, did you expect the almost unanimous praise for your art? How has this influenced your work – was there more stress when you realised people liked it so much, or was it easier?

Knut_Rockie: I was completely shocked by the praise (in a nice way). It's amazing to know so many people are appreciating what I do and the fact that they like my work enough to comment on it is a big honour for me. Without a doubt the praise has helped me plough through these portraits. It spurs me on to do the best that I can in the shortest space of time possible. I do welcome all constructive feedback even if it's critique, but that would definitely have slowed me down as the perfectionist in me would keep trying to revisit the critiqued drawings.

GLN: Do you enjoy drawing the star players more than the regular players, or the other way round?

Knut_Rockie: Again there's no clear cut answer to this. Some positionals are more fun than star players and some star players are more fun than positionals. As a rule of thumb I'd say the star players have a slightly higher difficulty level because in some cases they have fairly well defined characters and that is not easy to do in this format. With positionals you can generalise a bit but you can't do that with well loved characters like Griff, Zug, Morg, Lord Borak and the others; you really need to encapsulate something about them and that can take a fair bit of time and effort.

GLN: How much time does one drawing take?

Knut_Rockie: This is variable. Generally I can get it done on average in 40 minutes but if it is a tough one I may need to do further research, several drawings until I'm satisfied. So sometimes they take longer, but I'm very aware I don't have unlimited time and the sooner I can get them done the better. So I tend to give myself a target of how many i want to produce in a session and try and do it.

GLN: What do you think of ryanfitz's colouring?

Knut_Rockie: I think he's doing a superb job. I'm so grateful he stepped in to do the colouring as I simply couldn't do it as quickly as is needed. I'm still learning the ropes of how to use photoshop to colour my work and I get really picky over silly details so it would take me at least a few hours per drawing and if you think about how many drawings there are that is an unfeasible amount of time. I think his colourings keep getting better and better and there are some rosters where he's definitely raised them up a few notches on the excellence scale adding interest and drama to my pencils. The portraits that will end up on the client are definitely a team effort and he deserves much praise, It wouldn't have happened without his hard work.

GLN: Are Knut_Rockie's drawings easy or hard to colour, relatively speaking?

ryanfitz: I've only done one other colorist job in the past and the artist I worked with didn't have nearly as good of a feel for motion as Knut does. I originally had some conniptions over where the light source would be and how the shadows should fall, but after getting the 1st batches shrunk down to client size, realized that a more readable coloring job was more important that worrying about details that do not appear in the final product.

GLN: How much time does it take to colour a drawing?

ryanfitz: Hadn't timed it 'till you asked so timed the last couple I did. I would guess I average 30-45 minutes breaking down each image, I break 'em out into layers so I can re-edit and rework them quicker. I'll then spend another 30-90 mins working on getting a good 'team theme' that I like for the team then the rest of the team takes about 10 min. each. All told each player averages about an hour or so. (It was a good bit longer when I started!)

GLN: Have you ever suggested a change in Knut_Rockie's drawings, because it did not really work after colouring? If not, have you ever thought about it?

ryanfitz: The only suggestions I have made to Knut's drawings were posted into the forums as 'edited' products of his work to try to get them to fit in the client restrictions, but the coloring has been quite flexible and relatively easy to work out. I have also gotten a lot of great advice and observations to help make the final images more 'finished'

GLN: How do you decide which team colours to use for a race?

ryanfitz: I have tried to make the teams as familiar as possible to FUMBBLers, so I have looked at the player pics that came standard with Skyjunkie's client as a basis.

Please meet Prinzka. She is an old goblin shaman, and a former Star Player that has played for many famous Goblin teams. She is infamous for influencing matches by her unstable WAAAAGH! magic. These days she is retired, but her wisdom of the game is enormous - as is her madness.

Dear Prinzka,

- Nin

Failed a Bone-head roll, eh? Fear not! Have a look around. Is there a crowd making a lot of noise? Do you smell the scent of sweat and blood? Is there an idiot walking around striped in black-and-white? Is there a spiked ball flying around somewhere?

Then it does not matter where you are. All that matters is that you start hitting your opponent, ya Stupid Bully!

Dear Prinzka,

- Yours One Time Spectator of Lord Borak And Still In Therapy

I doubt Mr. Ironbrain still remembers me from the only time we've ever met. I drugged him pretty heavy, after all...

Yes, that was one special night. It took a long time getting that arrogant oaf out of his armour. To tell you the truth, I expected more from a Chaos Warrior his size!

Dear Prinzka,

The Goth&Gorgeous' mighty blitzer Bardakh the Black.

Meagre worm! You should be thanking the heavens that she even allows you to play on the same team. Personally, I suspect that she got a headache from your continued persistence in trying to sniff her behind. I suggest you get back to doing what you do best: dying on the LoS.

If you are still desperate to get her attention, come to me - I'll make you forget she ever existed in the first place... One night in the arms of this old goblin is more magic than your scrawny elven butt can handle in a lifetime!

Dear Prinzka,

Dwarfed by Life
-bxnyc

I believe Christer needs someone to feed his squig. You could apply for that job. I won't expect you to live long, but I guess that's what you get for failing your dog.

Dear Prinzka,

Jag "Toejam" Flous

He choked to death on you, so I assume he did not find you all that tasty. Logic would dictate that it would be best to make sure he does not forget that.

But then again, we are talking about a Troll here. So, my advice is: stop worrying about your impending doom and find all the glory you can before he eats you. If you're afraid, try eating a mushroom before playing.

Dear Prinzka,

Yours
Concerned for survival

If you know better than your coach, then perhaps you should help your coach. Retire and become an assistant coach. No need to fear your death that way too.

OR! You could stop being a bleeding coward and just do whatever your coach tells you to do. Your coach places you on the Line of Scrimmage? Then you should excell at your job there, and your coach will quickly think better of your skills.

Now stop whining and smell the waaagh!

Dear Prinzka,

Yours hopefully,
Itchy N scared in Lavino

Sounds just like an ingredient I was missing for one of my potions. Come on over and I'll dissect that end-zone of yours! I'll garantuee you that you'll never feel itchy there again...

If you haven’t heard, perhaps because you’ve been recovering from a Treeman-induced coma or you happen to be a Troll, there is a new client gracing FUMBBL. Kalimar’s new fantasy football client includes, not only new rules and improvements, but customization options that will allow players to change the look of their teams. In anticipation of this, the GLN will offer articles for new and would-be pixel painters. This series aims to take you from the basics through to creating icons from scratch.

While I haven’t picked up a brush in many ages, painting icons is very similar in many ways. You need to prepare them properly, choose your colours, add shadows and highlights, and sometimes even modify them or build one from scratch. If you can paint miniatures, it is likely you can paint icons too!

Part 1: Getting Started

The Icon (Miniature)
As mentioned, icons are just like miniatures in many ways, but even smaller. Instead of being measured in mm they are measured in pixels, and oddly enough, the standard ffb icon is 28 pixels high, similar in scale to a standard miniature. The icons are GIF files which can be up to 256 colours and allow you to have transparency so they look like they are on the field.

Prepping Your Icon
At first, it is recommended that you start with existing icons and learn to work with them to hone your skills. Later on we will break out the ‘green stuff’ and do some scratch builds.

So, you’ve just picked up a nicely painted team of Humans from an ffbay auction, but they aren’t your team’s colours. What now? The first thing to do is prep them for repainting. To do this, first open them in Photoshop* and convert them to RGB. If you don’t you will be limited to the 256 (or less) colours currently used. Select Image > Mode > RGB.

Having done this it is best to save your ‘primed’ icon as a .psd.

*This series will assume that the reader is using Adobe Photoshop to edit their icons. You should be able to achieve similar results with a free program such as Gimp.

Repainting the Livery You’ve decided that red just isn’t your colour, nor is it the colour of the Lavino Fighting Hellfishes, Jan Mattys’ legendary Human squad. So break out your pixel brush, it is painting time!

The first step is to select an area that you plan to recolour with either the marquee selection tool or the wand. It isn’t necessary at this point to get all the areas to be recoloured, or be completely accurate. Having made the selection, select Layers > Image Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. The first thing you need to do is click on ‘colourize’. Having done this you will likely want to bring up the saturation and then adjust the hue to find the right colour. Going back to the saturation, and lightness if necessary, play with the setting until you find a colour you are happy with. N.B. Using extreme settings for saturation, and especially lightness, can cause you to lose a lot of the highlighting and shading in the icon. Just as in a regular mini, the highlights and shadows are key to the icon looking good, so be careful.

TIP: You will likely be doing multiple icons with the same colour so it is helpful to write down your settings. If you forget, you can open the layer again and check them.

In this case, we have chosen the Hellfishes customary orange as the base colour. Click OK.

What we have created is a new layer that affects the hue and saturation of the layers below it, but only where the mask we have created is. The benefit of this is that it is non-destructive to the original icon, we can double-click the layer and easily change the colour at any time, and we can alter the mask layer to choose what we want to colourize.

We will now colour the rest of the icon’s uniform using the mask layer. Click on the mask layer to activate it and choose the pencil tool. In the mask layer you only use black or white. White is used to add to the area being colourized, and black to remove the colour where you don't want it.

TIP: While you tend to use a very small 1 or 2 pixel pencil tool, sometimes you want it larger. You can easily make the brush bigger with the [ and ] keys.

Black and White
Adding black, white, greys, or very dark or light colours to your uniform is a bit trickier than colourizing, but not much. We will add some white trim to the liveries by following the same steps as above and creating a new hue and saturation layer. The only setting we need to adjust here is saturation. Bring it right down to zero and click OK. Again, you pain the areas you want white with you pencil tool.

Now to get the white we are looking for choose Layers > New Adjustment Layer >Levels. Before you click OK, make sure you check Group With Previous Layer so it only affects the areas in the mask of the hue and saturation layer. To attain the white desired, slide the right level marker to the left until you are happy with the colour. It is important to not go too far and lose the shadowing. Moving the shadows in and midtones might help too. This will be trial and error at first until you find a setting you are happy with.

Home Versus Away When you play, you always appear as the home team (red side) while to your opponent you are the away team (blue side). For the spectators, you could be either. To ensure that everyone sees you it is important to make a set for both home and away. Always make the home set first, then the away set is easy. In this case we won’t worry about changing colours because you want your unique uniforms to be visible to everyone. (And if they don’t want to view you in all your glory, they can default to the standard icons.)

Open your .psd file(s) and select Image > Rotate Canvas > Flip Canvas Horizontal. Then save the icon with another name.

Saving Your Work (Clear-coating)
Once you’ve recoloured your team you need to save them before you can send them out onto the pitch. Having prepped the home and away squads, you are ready to make them all into GIF files. Open the files and select File > Save For Web. Choose GIF and ensure that transparency is selected. Click OK.

Your custom team is now ready to take the field. (Once the site is configured to do so, which unfortunately it isn’t quite yet.) Get out there and have fun!

Next issue we will dig into the bit box as we add more customization to our miniatures, ... er ..., icons.

The following coaches were interviewed the moment after they had won their qualifier final.

CircularLogic

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Champion of Khorne?

Clearly we were chosen by the god of blood! He incited our fans, the team and even me! In our first match, the fans stormed the pitch right at the kick-off, right at the start of the 2nd half and in the beginning of the over time. Each time they removed the ref, so that we could deliver a whopping 10 casualties for them - against orcs! Second match the team earned their blessing from Khorne by inflicting a casualty on every single wood elf the opponent had in their team - including their freebooter. Well.. they got every elf, but one, because one line elf was pushing into our fans where he was shredded to pieces! In the final, the fans once again removed the ref, but a nasty blitz by the opposing star beast removed both our DPs. So it was up to the rest of the team to play a brilliant defense, scoring a knockdown in nearly every single block and gaining the ball for an early lead. None of the KOs recovered - EVER, making them casualties in disguise and the second half a walk in the park. So to sum up:
First match - Fan POWER! - Ten casualties!
Second match - Team POWER! and Fan POWER! - Ten casualties!
Final match - Team POWER! - Ten casualties! Though only five were officially credited for.

Those are the Champions of Khorne!

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

The spirits of the team are up, that's for sure. A full healthy squad means we can march right on into the final competition. It remains to be seen how we fare there, but as long as not too many pesky blodger with wizard support make it through and the other teams get cursed by our benefactor - Khorne - we should be a definite contender for the title.

Why did you choose to apply for Khorne? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

I chose the Khorne qualifier, because I counted on it drawing in Chaos and Khemri teams, both teams orcs do well against. I thought that the biggest guns would be in the Nurgle and Tzeentch tourneys so I rather didn't want to go there even though the price is more attractive. But both prices are attractive to high TS bashers and my wasn't the highest in the pecking order there. Slaneesh would be a nightmare, as orcs have a really tough time in a tourney that is probably elf-heavy. Plus the Slaneesh price just sucks. So Khorne it was. I probably would do the same again, though with the knowledge of only four teams playing for the Tzeentch champion slot, I would have applied there and ended up as the highest TR team in the favored crowd.

vicius

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Champion of Tzeentch?

It was a tough qualification for sure. First round was against alibaba´s chaos. We both hoped for a massacre, but I think won the match because he didn't spend any money (although he had 200k). He probably didn't know sexy my Ogres are and perhaps thought it was an easier match.I think it was also because I started receiving and with a bit of luck destroyed his team in tje first half, so the second half was so easy. It would probably have been a totally different match if he had started receiving.

And the final, against a full Chaos Dwarf team with Htark, wizard as well as three handicaos... :S... It was a cool match, so close, first half wiz saved me from his Htark´s touchdown. In the second half he defended so well and I couldn't score either. Cool match. Overtime looked so bad for me with nine players against their eleven including Htark and a wizard. I still had some hope because I receieved. Well, it was a lucky overtime for me, much like the match against alibaba. I started to hurt his players. Htark went KO to a snakes GFI, and all was so easy and lucky for me. He even almost forgot to use his wizard!

Trepidant qualifiers, love them, so tough, yet really nice ones. I enjoyed them a lot, and am eager to start the major!

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

SURE!

\O/

It is the best team I have ever had! Probably the only good one I have ever had. That makes me so excited to do it; I know Ogres depend a lot of luck, but anyway, I will fight to win the Crown of Sand!

\o/

Why did you choose to apply for Tzeentch? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

I always check wich are the prizes of any tournament. It doesn't matter for me what rivals I will meet or anything like that. I thought there would be good teams and coaches in all qualifiers, but I am a lover of the Tentacles skill. AND WITH OGRES!! \o/ There's no doubt about the temptation there.

And no, I would have applied in the same one. The opponents do not matter.

Jokaero

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Champion of Nurgle?

Enjoying tasty Dark Elves fillet, nibbling on tough Chaos Dwarf Steak and feast on juicy Greenskin haunch.

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

Hard to say. If we're lucky and don't face too many of those pansy elves who care more about that round thingy than a good fight, we stand good chances to make it far. However, we also rely on our daily mental form. i.e. We're screwed.

Why did you choose to apply for Nurgle? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

Reading through the arcane rule books of the Wheel Of Chaos tournament, I thought some tentacles would nicely fit my Ogers. Unfortunately I failed my bone head check when mapping the promised gifts to the corresponding ruinous powers. Nurgle and Tentacles just seemed so obvious. ;-)

However, becoming Champion of Tzeentch would have meant to battle vicius' sexy ogrex 2, a match that I'd rather see in the main draw. Fighting for some fat palatable flies can't hurt at all. We definitely look forward to pleasing Papa Nurgle!

Tytalus

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Champion of Slaanesh?

I made it by luck. There were only four of us and my first game was forfeited...

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

No chance at all. One of my best players (STR 5 Bull Centaur) just niggled on a sure feet GFI (apothecary failed), so my team is not strong enough. Most of the other coaches are going to be really good so I would need a 100% prepared team and lots of help from nuffle (I'm just a poor 163 cr but I praise nuffle everyday, just in case)...

Why did you choose to apply for Slaanesh? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

I took Slaanesh because most strong teams would be looking for Tentacles (Ogres, Lizardmen and Orcs), while good Elves and Dorfs would be looking for Foul Appearance, and most Chaos for frenzy (this was my reasoning), so I just tried the worst skill, in case good players/teams weren't there. This proved a fake (gunslinger is a top coach in the box and jimjo one of the highest in Ranked so I was obviously wrong).

Wotfudboy

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Favoured of Tzeentch?

No special preparation had gone into this team for the Wheel of Chaos tournament. In fact the last time they had played in Black Box was in April as I felt like taking up other challenges in Black Box, and we had had a mediocre record of 13/5/9. So I threw them into the tournament as a do or die team... And the appeal of getting Tentacles on the Block/Guard/Tackle mummy Cleopatra herself was too much to resist.

We knew we had to win 4 games in a row, and let's face it Tzeentch plays on hope... but when we were drawn against Melissa's Kaulu kruva Khemri team first round, we knew that all we had was hope and maybe a little bit of luck from the Lord of Change himself. In fact, when we received first and got Quick Snap, and the very first block thrown resulted in a nonregen SI, we believed we would win. The first half was ours, but the second half had very changeable luck (how appropriate) as both coaches rolled some miserable dice at key points. I had faced Melissa twice previously in ranked and suffered 24 casualties (12 per game) at her Khemri's hands, so it was great to get one back over her.

The second round draw threw up yet more Khemri opposition in the form of Alf115's team. I had hired Ramtut this time as the bank finally allowed it... But Get the Ref was the match changer for me first half... With two of Alf115's mummies sent to the KO box by turn four. The second half began with Alf having just three mummies on the field vs my five... and a Perfect Defense helped my cause greatly... However, I was undone by what has to be the play of the tournament; when Alf's Thro-ra George Washington made a pickup on the side lines, to run and pass, with 2 GFIs, to an umarked Blitz-ra on the other side of the field, needing a 5+ to pass (rerolled with pass skill) and a 4+ to catch... and my entire defensive line was too far away. I had become momentarily complacent, and I had been punished. However, I forced Alf into a dodge next turn, but he made it to score. Fortunately the forced TD meant I had enough time to counter and win. This was another close game.

The semi-final could have seen me face either one of two orc teams laden with hard hitting orcs or Stinkytroll's fast moving human team. Fortune favoured me here... I really believe I would have been in trouble to get any further had the draw not been so kind. I returned Tzeentch's favour with many injuries (1/5/1) in his name as we decimated the human team without landing a single foul. This got me to the group final, but just 10k short of getting Ramtut.

Yet again, Tzeentch was kind... as the two orc teams had ripped into each other, with Skolopender and McCloud getting foul happy... but McCloud coming off the worst despite winning... in fact McCloud dropped 56 Strength between rounds... and the final was a one sided affair as the Khemri just played the numbers game, despite the best efforts of the Mighty Zug. However, no cash from the game means a starless next game... Just have to hope (yes, there's that word again) that Tzeentch continues to favour us.

Apart from huge amounts of luck at key stages throughout this tournament, what really won it for us was the fact that throughout this campaign we had access to 4 Block/Guard mummies. It made us a serious driving force on the field.

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

Of course... The team is in great shape... No MNGs, no niggles. The only downside is lack of cash, so just hope opposition doesn't have surplus cash for stars and wizards. On their day this team can beat anyone... It is well balanced and has fortune on their side - so far.

Why did you choose to apply for Tzeentch? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

Sort of answered previously, in that I would love Tentacles on a mummy... I once had a team with a Mino with block/tackle/tentacles (before the rule changes) and that was amazing. I certainly don't regret my choice, and would not choose differently.

Continued on page 17

freak_in_a_frock

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Favoured of Khorne?

The draw was VERY kind to me. I only had two games, and both where way down, in fact the final was against a borderline rookie chaos team. This was extra lucky as my necros struggle to maintain a high Team Strength in the Box, Wolf turnover is extremely high.

Both games went to plan with poor handicaps drawn against me. The only downer was a zombie refusing to pick the ball up for a score in the final and so I am still a Dirty Player short of where I would like the team to be.

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

Of course I stand A chance of winning the whole tournement, but it is a very slim one. I can pull the Count in for a game and i do have a lot of dodge scattered about on the team. Necros will always struggle long term in a Major though, as they are sure to lose a wolf and/or golem which will be very hard to replace whilst still trying to win (the money is better spent on the Count)

I haven't looked at the other qualifiers in detail yet, but i would hope to avoid any dwarves or orcs in the first round. I know of two ogre teams making it through (congrats) and this is probably my best chance of progressing. I would still be a huge under-wolf...er..dog, but against ogres nuffle really comes into play and i am surely going to need a lot of nuffle's help. No matter who the other qualifiers are i would imagine i am the ranked outsider. I will probably have the lowest Team Strength of the teams and Necros probably have the lowest BWR of the qualifying races. I can't afford to risk any warm up games in case i lose a key player, so what you see is what you get.

Why did you choose to apply for Khorne? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

Anybody who has ever played me knows that I employ a very rigid man marking ideology. I have often had it remarked that even when I have only four players left on the pitch I can make it seem like 11. The side effect of this is that I have a much higher player turnover rate than most coaches. Very few of my teams ever manage a positve casualty rating. This lead to the concept of 'Pray For Death' (my ranked alter ego of this team). A Necro team risen from the dead only to become disillusioned with the world around them, they new seek true death on a bloodbowl pitch. (read the bio for full back story).

I enjoy the fluff of the team immensely and like to carry it forth as best I can (hence them moving to the box for the extra roughness). Therefore it was only natural that they would go seek the followers of the 'Blood God'.

I was pleased with the way the meta-game worked leaving me with a great chance of progressing. The team, however, weren't quite so enthusiastic. I do remind them that I lost nearly half my team on the way to the Fumbbl Cup semi's though, and that seems to placate them, after all iIam bound to lose a lot more on this adventure.

I wouldn't change my choice even if I knew it was going to be a much tougher group, fluff is too important to the team. The prizes weren't even a consideration, since I never expect to win a Major with Necros anyway.

Synn

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Favoured of Nurgle?

By fouling everything I could. In my three matches, I have racked up 24 fouls. I would like to think this is called "sticking with what you are good at" :D

In all honesty though, getting dorfs, dorfs, then beat up zons was actually quite favorable. I like using CDs against dorfs and who doesn't like using them against Amazons.

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

Probably not, but I bet a few of the coaches who already have qualified will disagree. My TR might be low, but it's not like that wasn't the case when I won the Warpstone Open with Chaos Dorfs. CircularLogic's Orcs are the only team I am hoping to outright avoid, but if I have to play him eventually, I would rather it be the first round before he has cash to counter Hthark.

Why did you choose to apply for Nurgle? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

I figured some Foul Appearance would be fun, but I also figured this would be one of the least populated draws. I have no regrets as I did win my qualifier, but interesting how everyone avoided Khorne.

PurpleChest

How did your team make it through the qualifications to become the Favoured of Slaanesh?

I got a bye in the first round, for a very tricky looking match up, but the opponent never showed. after that it was all good dice and pure luck. The team just plowed through everything in front of it, helped they were heavy for their draw.

Do you think your team stands a good chance to win the whole tournament?

Nope. I think its a decent team but VERY vanilla. It just lacks the +STR or +AG to really make the big plays. There are sopme absurdly huge Ogre teams too, showing why they got toned down at higher TR in the latest ruleset.

Why did you choose to apply for Slaanesh? Would you choose differently if you knew in what draw you would have ended up?

I thought it might be quite empty. So for a variety of reasons decided to fill it out a bit. Nope, whatever comes, comes.

At this point we will jump forwards several weeks to the winners podium:

vicius (as winner)

How did your team make it through the Wheel Of Chaos itself to become the winner in the name of Tzeentch? How difficult were these games?

-Wheel of Chaos itself was unfortunately easier than the Qualifying. I got 2 Chaos Dwarf teams to start with and with a bit of Nuffle´s help I won both ones without hurts. Same way in the final, we all know Ogres depends a lot of the luck, and with luck are unstoppables. I almost got nothing but bashy teams, and Ogres are so good in bashy match-ups. I have hardly taken any casualty in the whole tourney, except for a gobbo normal SI!!

How is to be the first and only Major winner to win with an Ogre team? How did it feel to come across a Necromantic team in the last match - a team that also never makes it that far in a Major?

-I am so glad and happy to won da major with Ogres - my favourite race. So difficult to play them, but so very enjoyable. Thought in the Box that it is more possible for Ogres to win majors, because there are hardly Elves or Amazons, the worst teams to meet for Ogres. And I loved so much to meet a Necromantic team in the final. My opponent did a cool thing to play them so far. They are another funny race, but unfortunately Nuffle did not want to let them play properly in the final: I hoped it could have been a cool final between the races.. :(

This is your first ever Major victory. Do you think your Ogres have what it takes to go at it in future Majors as well?

-For sure, I think I have a competitive Ogre team now and almost with two physical skills!! Will fight in every major for sure!!

Will the team change its tactics now they have been marked by Tzeentch?

-Hehe, not sure, will see wich skills we get and perhaps we could change any tactic; Tentacles will definitely help.

What do you like so much about playing Ogres?

-I think they are great. It is a team who needs to play with a lot of tactic. Every turn there can be a lot of failed Boneheads, so you can lose the match in every turn, so you need to be completely alert every turn. But it's the basic rule to know in Blood Bowl: first move, have the carrier protected and then hit. In defense they are so great with lot of STR5, but it's difficult to defend. And with their TTM, I figure it is one of the best and funniest teams. They are a bit irregular and anarchic, but that's the best to play them. Every turn is unexpected. :D

GLN: Tell us about yourself. Who are you, what do you do outside of FUMBBL? When did you start playing Blood Bowl and when did you discover FUMBBL?

Reisender: My name is Daniel, I am 30 years old and I come from Germany, near the city of Cologne. After working in development cooperation for some years I am now preparing my PhD in philosophy - about climate ethics, if that is of any interest.

I started playing Blood Bowl about, let me guess, 15 to 18 years ago, with some house rules of a local league in Cologne. Lots of my friends still play tabletop, mostly Warhammer or Warhammer 40k, but since I lived abroad for a while and I always liked Blood Bowl most I gave it a try when a friend told me about it. That guy does not play here himself, so I actually do not know any other FUMBBL coach in real life.

GLN: You've won your share of Major qualifiers, but never made it so far as the finals before. Tell us about your run to the GLT victory. What was your favourite game and which was the hardest to win?

Reisender: Well, my rats had won some qualifier matches and FUMBBL cup games before, but this was the first time I really had them ready before a major tournament – the only time they were in better shape was at my first major, the FUMBBL Cup 2007, when I had the mot brilliant rat team you can imagine, with lots and lots of stat increases and doubles. Unfortunately, I was a n00b and got kicked out in round 1 then.

This time, I had 210k of gold and a full 15 rat team, so I knew I could get far with a little luck. I took Hakflem and the wizz often, which really helps to get through. The hardest game – this was probably the second qualifier match against Kenty´s awesome Necromantic side Sleeper in Metropolis. Kenty had the Count, awesome Werewolves and the obligatory truckload of dirty zombies. The first half was an awesome fight, finally I broke through and had a 1:0 lead at half-time, with one of the wolves fouled out. In half two my wizard helped to steal the ball quickly, and it was 2:0 with just 5 turns to go – I thought I had won already, but a quick score by Kenty followed by a blitz made it 2:2. Finally Freeenzrat Clawbearer, AG5 Gutter Runner and my teams MVP, 1 turned for the win. I probably would have lost overtime due to lack of players and rerolls.

My favourite game was the semifinal against Manp´s Wood Elves Terrible Dancers. I got bashed in half one, which forced me to a risky early score and to a very risky lightning bolt on defence. It paid off for a 2:1 lead at half-time, and in the second half my rat ogre forced a turnover for the decisive 3:1.

GLN: Rata Blanca is by far the team you have played the most. Could you tell us about the emotional bond you have with this team? Why do you like playing this team so much, and why do you like Skaven this much?

Reisender: Actually at one point, I retired all my FUMBBL teams – my Dark Elf team had been bashed badly, and with a really bad real life time on top of it, I went emo and wanted to quit FUMBBL. I retired all teams, but when the rats were the only team left, I decided to keep them. I just love the little suicide rats. *hugs pixels*. It´s nice to have a veteran team on fumbbl, since I really like the tournament scene and the smacktalk about the better known teams on FUMBBL.

Before I joined FUMBBL, I was a Dark Elf player – since the time when there was still a sprint stat, which made elves the fastest team in bloodbowl. I like fast teams, but wood elves are just too emo, so I ended up chosing rats.

GLN: Could you tell us about your playing style with Rata Blanca? Would you say you coach the team any differently than other Skaven coaches?

Reisender: Defending, I like to play the ball and I take risks to get it when I see a chance. If I have a wizard I tend to use it early - in my gameplan I want to decide the game as long as there are rats left. I love those risky moves, trying to get the ball and run. Of course, as all Skaven coaches will admit, there are situations when you have to play conservatively - the big challenge with rats is to know at what point you need to risk the health of your rats. But when the decision is difficult, I usually go for the risk.

When I have the ball, I like to stall for a half when I can, and when I outnumber my opponent quickly, I go for the blood and the boot. However, this does not always work for rats, although they can do a better job at it than most orc coaches might think!

I think there are several coaches that play a similar style. Others might play more conservatively when defending and score quicker when attacking. During the GLT, lots of nice skills on my gutters (2 dauntless, 1 +ST Tackle and 1 AG5 Leap Strip Ball) allowed me to play the risky game I love and attack the nearly every turn.

GLN: Rata Blanca has only the finest albino skaven players, according to rumour. Is this true? If so, is this never a problem when the team plays in heavy sun and has to endure major sunburn?

Reisender: The team manager is an obese albino rat ogre living in the deepest tunnels beyond Skavenblight, just known as the White Rat. The White Rat accepts only albino rats on the team - that may sound racist, but the rat ogre just loves the look of the blood on the white fur when they die in action. When Rata Blanca has to play uncivilised races that do not live in coy tunnels, the team trusts WARPBLOX 3000, the rat´s trusted sun blocker. WARPBLOX 3000 is made of the purest Warpstone, mixed with the blood of selected elven maidens, harvested by hand in the deepest forests of the old world. Try also WARPBLOX Green for the goblinoid gentlegob of today, and WARPBLOX CryptKeeper, keeping bones as white as if they just had been dug out.

GLN: Now that you have won the GLT, the team has been joined by a Chaos Dwarf Blocker named Moshbeard the Unwashed. Why a Chaos Dwarf Blocker, and are the other players accepting him in the team?

Reisender: Yes, Moshbeard is a wandering Chaos Dwarf blocker who could not find a Blood Bowl team because he is an albino. He turned away from his people, and since he took an oath not to wash himself until he finds a team and wins the FUMBBL cup, he was mistaken for a rat by the Rata Blanca management and hired. Anyway, he seems to be a fine choice since he draws lots of fouls so far. Alternatives could have been a Dark Elf Lineman or a Beastman. But since the player came with the Pro skill, the choice was a Chaos Dwarf since Pro works fine with the Block and Tackle that is there.

Moshbeard is accepted by the team. Early controversies about apo privileges have been solved with the death or retirement of all the team´s stars shortly after the Grotty Little Tournament. Moshbeard claims that he has nothing to do with it, and there is nobody left who would dare to doubt this.

GLN: What does the future hold in store for Rata Blanca? Is Rata Blanca looking forward to the new client?

Reisender: Rata Blanca loves the new client and will join the Fantasy Football Rumble as soon as the tourneys will take place there. It will probably be more difficult to sneak through the KO rounds there, with the teams trusted wizard not easily available within the new rules and not as powerful as before against low agility teams. There are two other goals for the White Rat - the most important is to try to win the Fumbbl Cup to raise our beloved thrower Raton from the dead - probably it wont happen but we will try. Of course, the rats will also compete in the Lustrian Challenge as a preparation for the FUMBBL Cup. Another project is to try to get a positive record against all races - we need to work on our play stile against High Elves, Dark Elves and Vampires, and get a first match against Halflings.

However, the team will look different. At the moment of this interview, only four GLT winners are still alive and active for the team.

GLN: What is the best way for an opposing coach to beat Rata Blanca?

Reisender: Do not expose the ball. Never. And kill them. Kill them all. Be a Vampire coach. This helps. Don´t be an Orc coach.

GLN: And finally, any advice for coaches who want to win a Major title, from the perspective of someone who just made it to the top?

Reisender: First of all, sacrifice something to Nuffle. You will need Nuffle for the times your brain fails and in those crunch times against equal or superior opponents. You will need luck to avoid all those killer teams or to survive playing them.

Second, manage your team well. Rata Blanca performed much better after I retired some skilled linerats and focused on the Gutter Runners and Stormvermin again. Tackle on two Gutter Runners and a strip ball leaper as a "tactical fear generator" (to quote PeteW) were crucial to beat all the elves on the way.

Third, if you are an agility team, use the wizard. Use it wisely and, yes, in my humble opinion, use it early. You can spectate so many teams getting kicked out of a tourney with the wizard still available in turn 16 - or using the wizard with three rats/elves left on the pitch.

Fourth, get a game plan and be ready to change it.

Fifth, sacrifice something else to Nuffle. You will need the extra luck, too.

Fed up with frostbite pick pocketing in the Old World?

Bored of the short wintery days in the Badlands?

Well, maybe it's time to ask your underworld boss for a transfer to the Southern Wastes. Where the sun unnaturally shines 27 hours a day 57 weeks of the year!

The Southern Wastes League (SWL) is the oldest and one of the biggest of the global based leagues. The majority of the coaches are based in Australia. However it is open to and includes coaches from New Zealand, South East Asia and the Orient.

SWL games are generally played 7+ hours up on bb time (CET), but are open to coaches somewhere between 5+ to 11+ hours bb time.

For more information about the current season please visit here!

Also to find out more about SWL as a group, we have our own website. http://swl.servegame.org/swl/welcome.php

You may like to drop in for more information on our irc channel #swl, anyone in there will be more than happy to help you, or you can pm any of the SWL admins.

The first of two seasonal drafts are drawn towards the end of each season, this is an exciting time to be around the irc channel.

For a more detailed look at SWL and what is required go to the site guide.

New teams are required to play at least two trial games and a full first season (seven games).

Wanted: brave and talented goblin players to form a team. Ball handling skills appreciated. Fame guaranteed. Reasonable wages. Death and injuries a possibility. For more information, inquire at the GLN headquarters under 'PROJECT M'.

Block & Dodger is looking for a new public relations manager! After a failed sponsorship, Block & Dodger is facing bankruptcy and needs a new scapegoat for the next scandal. Inquire under 'B&D'.

Wanted: Team to play for. I (Strong Snotling blitzer, touchdown tornado and team captain) feel that I am too good for the all-Snotling team I am currently playing for. Any reasonable offers accepted. Inquire under 'SNOT'.

Wanted: Professional assassin to murder a famous Minotaur. Substantial reward offered. Inquire under 'REF'.

Do you feel like your skin suffers under the bright sun? Expecting to play in Araby soon? Recently turned into a Vampire? Contact us for a free sample of one of our WARPBLOX products! Inquire under 'WARP'.

Goblineer Balloon Company is looking for a new pilot for their 43rd Balloon Observer for the upcoming season.
The reactions by a new pilot in training: "It was love at first flight!", "Incredible!", "Fantastic!","I still haven't come down!"

Where to contribute

Those wishing to contribute to the advertising sections of the Grotty Little Newspaper (GLN) should post in the appropriate section within the correctly dated GLN forum. These are regularly checked by the editors. If your forum contribution is erased, it was probably used and is safely tucked into the correct area of the GLN.

For those wishing to contribute an article to the GLN please go to the IRC channel #GLNR and speak to Ro or anyone willing to listen :) about it.

House style for the GLN

Articles in the Grotty Little Newspaper, like any publication, have a set of house styles which mean that certain elements appear in a consistent style across the whole issue. Specifically, please conform to the following rules:

• FUMBBL is spelt in all capitals... NOT Fumbbl.
• Blood Bowl is spelt as two words, both capitalised... NOT Bloodbowl or Blood bowl.
• Races and positions are capitalised when they are referred to individually, so for instance you would talk about an Orc Blitzer, not an orc blitzer.
• Skill names are also capitalised. Note that both Dump-Off and Throw Team-Mate have a hyphen, but Side Step and Bone Head do not.
• Coach names are referred to as they appear on their coach pages so that, for example, m0nty is not capitalised but Christer is.
• Be careful with apostrophes. Do not use them when talking about plurals, like SPPs.
• Question-and-answer (Q&A) interviews are normally done with the questions being preceded by GLN:, not the author's name. Carriage returns (i.e. a blank line) are inserted between the Qs and As. Stage directions (when you are describing something that is happening, not being said) are put after the speech in a new line, in italics. There are no quote marks around the speech sections.

The Grotty Little Newspaper would like to thank everybody who made this issue possible: