Next team?

[Skitters]

old world alliance get to fight dirty with option for two chainsaw players?

Looking at the GW page, Helmut Wolf is mentioned as a feature in Spike and is listed in the description for the team card pack....but Flint Churnblade star player card appears in an image with Karla and Morg...

[Skitters]

so the suggestion is Humans will have animosity and Dwarves / Halflings have loner

...is that a bit of reflection on western society where there can be diversity, but it is only barely tolerated and the minorities don't get the same access to training?

[zenga]

I might be on my own here....but I am a bit disappointed with this latest release. It just shouts to me 'release something quick to get the cash in' - neither of the new teams have unique players do they? I could create these sides with what I already have.

Yes, corona etc but just wait to make the release instead of rushing this out. Just seems really lazy.

Maybe I am wrong and happy to be corrected just not impressed with this release at the moment.

[MacHurto]

I am happy for a new Spike! and more fluff. Wish they could use this hiatus due to COVID to publish more Spike! for the other teams released without one.

The team composition seems driven by the need to push something to market and not being able to release new sprues due to supply chain disruptions. They had announced a new team, so probably not related to “let’s sell old sprues before BB2020 hits the shelves”.

Not a fan of the underworld change, but don’t think it is game breaking. If the team had been originally designed like this and they had changed it to 0-2 Blitzers, we would probably see the same complaints.

For Old World Alliance, I like they were sensible enough to realize it was too strong without a nerf. Loner on 5-6 base players puts them down to tier 1.5-2, probably, which is fine.

As most people have the teams already, I am not certain it will drive much sales, tbh. But I guess the powers that be told the BB team to make some money. Has something sImitar happened to other ranges?

[ugrosh]

As most people have the teams already, I am not certain it will drive much sales, tbh. But I guess the powers that be told the BB team to make some money. Has something sImitar happened to other ranges?

Hehe Im not part of most people, so ill be buying the mashup kit for Old World Alliance. I remeber when here in Argentina ten years ago i was almost the only player, now is a growing comunity.

[Steam Ball]

I am happy for a new Spike! and more fluff. Wish they could use this hiatus due to COVID to publish more Spike! for the other teams released without one.

The team composition seems driven by the need to push something to market and not being able to release new sprues due to supply chain disruptions. They had announced a new team, so probably not related to “let’s sell old sprues before BB2020 hits the shelves”.

Second half of March, April, May, first of June, ~3 months... to write and layout book and boxes, then print probably in China like other printed things in the past, followed by fast shipping without any margin for errors... that would be apparent speed without the disruptions, uncertainties and forced closures in those months of 2020.

We would need to also assume that the plans are always made at the start of every new cycle (around "stay at home" declaration?) and finished in full by end of it, instead of unlinking things. Writing could be in previous time slot, while physical part is in the next one, so real speed would be 6 months. Or even more, product gets written and modelled in slot A but printed and injected in C, 9 months "in fly".

Also remember new 40K version, making the CNC machines busy by end of 2019, if not earlier... the Alliance sounds more planned than being a Covid side effect. For me they are supply chain reasons, but well known ones, with lot of time in advance.

[Jip]

Gutter Runners, plural, are great. Yes. How often does a Skaven coach finish a game with all four GRs on the pitch though? Think people viewing the Gutter Runner as a great addition have rose tinted glasses; one is relatively easy to splat, their strength is in numbers, and one is the loneliest number, ha!

These pick & mix rosters are just lazy from Games Workshop, it’s the fridge tapas of team creation.

Looking forward to the Nurgle/Elven Union mashup team though...

[garion]

Not a fan of the underworld change, but don’t think it is game breaking. If the team had been originally designed like this and they had changed it to 0-2 Blitzers, we would probably see the same complaints.

For Old World Alliance, I like they were sensible enough to realize it was too strong without a nerf. Loner on 5-6 base players puts them down to tier 1.5-2, probably, which is fine.

The underworld change I can take or leave really.

This old world alliance roster is a hot mess though. You are right in that it needed something to nerf it to stop it being too good at low TV. And even with the Loner nerf they are still decent in terms of their tier, probs 1.5, but are they fun... I don't see it at all. No one forced GW to have the team composition built in this way. They could have done literally anything with this new roster for a good guy pact team. Sadly we have such an unappealing team. The design is going to push people to play min maxed with 1 rr because of all the loner. Flings are pretty much redundant as you can't rely on them for anything because of loner. Loner on the Dwarves just makes this anything but enjoyable to play with. Really disappointed. I hope it is fixed and we get a decent version of this roster when the next edition comes out. Sadly I suspect we are stuck with this for at least a few years.

[zamerion]

this launch was planned from before the covid.

https://storage.googleapis.com/spikeybi ... ipping.jpg

these Chinese exports are from January..

They have not previewed these teams because there are no new models... and a shame because some underworld new miniatures with skavens/goblins more mutants /technological, it would have been amazing.

At least they could have accompanied with a star player of forgeworld...

[MacHurto]

this launch was planned from before the covid.

https://storage.googleapis.com/spikeybi ... ipping.jpg

these Chinese exports are from January..

Ok, I guess I was wrong. Not sure why they kept the design to the sprues, agree it is not the best design idea.

I was going to tell Garion that the design was a mess because they probably had To use the sprues, but I guess that is not the case and I will have to agree with him.

One thing, though, the halflings are good to have 11 players and be able to field Karla in EB rules (TV1100) (Copy pasted it from Tripleskull)

3 linemen
Blitzer
Thrower
Catcher
Blitzer (d)
2 long beards
Ogre
Halfling
1RR
APO

And just about money for Karla.

So, while loner makes him pretty useless for OTTD, the halfling makes a cheap fouler and allows SPs in tournaments

[garion]

And even if it had to be designed to sprue it could easily have been done while maintaining a fun, balanced, interesting roster.

For example -
0-12 human linemen
0-1 Thrower animosity
0-1 Catcher animosity
0-1 Dwarf blitzer animosity
0-3 Dwarf Blocker animosity
0-3 Fling
0-1 Ogre
rr 70k

This roster would fit using those sprues perfectly well for example. It would be fun. No balance issues. Not hard to achieve something interesting.

They dropped the ball. Hopefully there will be redemtion when snotlings come out.

[Itchen Masack]

Dont think they have dropped the ball. Getting the feeling that they are deliberately making sub standard teams for fear of accidentally creating a Tier 0 Monster.

[garion]

Yeah that's a fair point, but also covered above in my previous post. They clearly wanted to nerf the roster they had in mind, hence in the inclusion of loner. But again, they didn't have to design the roster this way.
Huge missed opportunity to create a fun new roster imo. So yeah I'm sticking with dropped the ball. If some people can find the enjoyment in this roster good for them. I honestly wish I could. And this is coming from someone that literally buys everything from blood bowl including this dull team, yes i build it and paint it, but it'll never get played with unless we get an errata or redesign when the new edition comes out. It's a real shame.

[Skitters]

Fluff wise I see this as mostly Human cities, where there are tolerated Dwarf, Halfling and Ogre populations. The Humans only tolerate them because they accept they bring certain skills but view Dwarves as mercenaries who don't speak propa', the Halflings as thieves and the Ogres as stupid lumps.

For me, loner would represents the coaching staff being (mostly) human and that training is primarily focused on the human players who also get the pick of the equipment

I think I'd prefer to play this team than Humans- even with animosity and Loner, as the Dwarves can act as a shield for the ball handling Humans and the Halflings give a foul/desperate ttm option. I kind of see them as a more upskilled little less bashy Chaos Dwarf roster.

[Mystic Force]

Loner is more of a handicap on things where there are no reroll skills for. So the dwarves will be hampered on blocking, but they can bring a lot of guard to aid the humans. The halflings still have dodge and stunty, but will not have landing help. Compared to the human team, they only lack the three blitzers, which are the key to the team, (no one is fielding a team of catchers or need 2 throwers) So the question really is do the extra positionals available add enough to compensate for three less blitzers, whose strength is block(dwarves have) , access to guard (dwarves have), movement 7 (dwarves definitely do not have). I have learnt at this point you never know how something really works until you actually try it out. I look foward to running this out. Most of the team now look different from what dropped out of Jervis' head in 1994. An iterative process should be used to make teams right in gameplay terms. It is better to start of weak and tweak up later than start to strong. Although GW current model of releases makes tweaks harder.