We have all been in the situation where that special player who has been so lucky with his skill rolls starts to drag down the team, instead of helping the team win. There comes a point when even the coolest legend needs to be retired to ensure a future for his team. I recently had to make the decision to let my bull centaur Meuh go, because he was slowly killing his team. In my case this decision was long overdue, but managing the team in its difficult situation was a great experience I can recommend. I think many of you will agree that having such a player and watching YOUR player climb the various top 10 lists adds an extra and fun dimension to playing Blood Bowl on FUMBBL.

I will discuss some of the things I learned here, focussing on ways to delay the inescapable end of your star’s career.

Cash problems: This is the most devastating of problems you face when you continue to play with your megastar. Just take a look at the team development graphics for the teams that have played with the greatest FUMBBL legends on the roster. It’s a slow, painful death. There is only one answer: Fanfactor. Now this might sound strange coming from me, but you NEED to do those 2 CAS, 2 TD per game. If you need to foul to do this, then foul. Let’s assume you have a fanfactor of 20 when you pass the TR300 mark. Pretty good fan factor, but with your own fans (70k on average) you make a whopping D6 – 5 in cash. This means you have to selectively play other teams with high FF to be able to replace Casualties and ageing victims.

Tips:

TR Drag: How much fun is it to have to give 5 handicaps to equal TS teams every game? Of course you can get lucky, but in the end the frustration builds. This is made worse by the fact that cash shortages force you to keep niggled players on board. You WILL roll virus, and in those games you will likely suffer more CAS against, due to your guys being outnumbered.

Tip: This is the time to start doing some research. It is both fun and useful to develop some rivalries against other teams with legends on board. In these games you will be able to play against fewer handicaps, and most likely make some cash as well. Just buddy list the coaches who have such teams, and don’t forget to put on a good show for the tons of spectators drawn to these kinds of games.

SPP Hogging: What to do when your star consumes ever increasing portions of the SPP your team gains? I have found that in the end, it’s the more the better. This might sound strange, but let me explain. As discussed above you will not be able to replace players because of failed ageing rolls all the time. Once you hit the higher regions of TR you will make at most 20k to 30k per game in revenues. As a consequence you can’t afford to build other players than your star up in SPP too much. I do realise this is a straight contradiction of the normal ways to build a successful team, but then again, this is about record hunting with stars, not about winning the Ulthuan Inviational.

Tip: Only build your other players up to their maximum usefulness level. As before, this is a principle that applies in different ways for different races. For instance a CD Blocker only needs Guard and MB. All skills after that you risk ageing for little gain.

For agile races this distinction is not that strong, but the need to keep them from ageing is even stronger than in bashies, since you probably lose players on the pitch more often.

n the end, nothing will save your star from retirement. Even the best team manager on FUMBBL can not hope to keep his team alive or even competitive for long once the star takes the TR above 300, at least not without consistently staying away from anything that might cause an injury or 2 to his players. Just set yourself a goal for which record you want to break, and once you break it retire the star and save yourself the pain of trying to beat Fro’de. Trust me on this one…