Spike! Journal

[Skitters]

thumbs up for spike 3 from me

I would like to see the team colours and spike ratings for the other famous teams - but maybe that should be a WD article

[garion]

thumbs up for spike 3 from me

Yeah me too. On the whole a really good magazine.

Shame the Big Guy still doesn't have M access on singles, this never made sense and still doesn't. It would have been a nice change to one of the weaker teams in the game at low TV. But never mind, not a big deal. Not a fan of the name changes on this team either, unlike the Chaos Renegades name changes, which imo were a far more successful attempt to make things adhere to 2nd edition Blood Bowl asthetic. But again not a big deal either.

The Horticulturalist is a fun idea but sadly pointless as he is so underpowered compared with the normal wizard. So he will never get used. But better pointless than game spoiling.

Glad to see each mag has had 10 stars per team. Hopefully this does not change at any point, and the existing Star players continue to be given skills that actually make them useful, which was one of my citiques of CRP stars. So big thumbs up here. All the background stuff is good too. Nurglings are a nice little addition too.

Spike 2 was also good, forgot to put my thoughts out there. The background, famous teams etc.. was all great, really enjoyed that.

negatives - Assassins are still a waste of space, so will continue to be roundly ignored. Though better this than making them too good.
I do not like the way jeremiah cool is noted as a Golen Era Star player, as the other two magazines and teams don't have this. I like that you have noted he is part of the optional rules and not core (something you should continue to do with things like Cards for example). However this means there are only 9 normal stars and 1 special star for this team. It would have been better to either give all teams 9 normal and 1 special or all teams 10 normal stars. Then kept the special stars seperate. This is a miss step really. We don't want to return to pre lrb5 era where every team had a different number of stars....

chearleader and coach inducements are fine I guess, not sure they are really needed tbh as teams that close in TV are even anyway, so you don't need to give a little boost. Would rather the price was 30k but never mind. Not going to cause any big problems.

[stashman]

The Horticulturalist is not underpowered in my World or maybe I read the rules wrong

With d3 hits within 2 squares and you can choose who will get hit! You can engage a cage and stil snipe the opponent only. If the cage is bigger and more loose you can pick players within 2 squares.

[garion]

The Horticulturalist is not underpowered in my World or maybe I read the rules wrong

With d3 hits within 2 squares and you can choose who will get hit! You can engage a cage and stil snipe the opponent only. If the cage is bigger and more loose you can pick players within 2 squares.

The problem is - why would you ever use this over a fireball? Fireball can hit up to 9, though usually targets around 4 or 5. As opposed to a 1 in 3 chance of getting the chance to hit 3 players, and a 2 in 3 chance of attempting to knock over 1 or 2. No thanks

[gjnoronh]

Agreed. There may be rare cases where it's situationally useful but seems less effective overall then the fireball.

Maybe if you used it after cracking a cage corner at the start of your opponents turn?

[garion]

Agreed. There may be rare cases where it's situationally useful but seems less effective overall then the fireball.

Maybe if you used it after cracking a cage corner at the start of your opponents turn?

its always better to have a fireball on hand that the nurgle wizard...., in fact Ignoring cost I would say horatio is better too by quite some way. If you take cost in to account he is 80 k instread of 150 then he is miles better.

[Moraiwe]

Agreed. There may be rare cases where it's situationally useful but seems less effective overall then the fireball.

Maybe if you used it after cracking a cage corner at the start of your opponents turn?

its always better to have a fireball on hand that the nurgle wizard...., in fact Ignoring cost I would say horatio is better too by quite some way. If you take cost in to account he is 80 k instread of 150 then he is miles better.

It is clearly not always true. The Nurgle one is better on offence. Fireball doesn't automatically ignore your own players, while the Nurgle one can remove three people from your ball carrier's tacklezones.

[garion]

Agreed. There may be rare cases where it's situationally useful but seems less effective overall then the fireball.

Maybe if you used it after cracking a cage corner at the start of your opponents turn?

its always better to have a fireball on hand that the nurgle wizard...., in fact Ignoring cost I would say horatio is better too by quite some way. If you take cost in to account he is 80 k instread of 150 then he is miles better.

It is clearly not always true. The Nurgle one is better on offence. Fireball doesn't automatically ignore your own players, while the Nurgle one can remove three people from your ball carrier's tacklezones.

Nope, its never worth taking the nurgle wizard over the standard wizard or horatio. You might, if you really try very very very hard be able to think of an extremely specific occasion in which the nurgz wiz would be beneficial, though (even then I have my doubts). But thats theory bowl at its very worst.
You take the inducements pre game, you don't swap them in and out whenever suits you. It will never be taken other than - for fluff reasons, if you are a new to the game, or if you just fancy trying it out for the lolz. In competative play he is pointless when compared with the other options. Which is fine, I woudl rather more pointless additions than a repeat of horatio...

[Moraiwe]

I wasn't responding to whether it was worth taking, but to your comment about having one on hand. If your want your comments to be taken more seriously, cut out the ridiculous hyperbole.

[kyrre]

Would d3+1 help the nurgle wizard? Or always 3?

[garion]

Would d3+1 help the nurgle wizard? Or always 3?

hmmmm, how to improve the nurgz wizard.... well it's not really how I envisaged a Nurgle Wizard, when I had silly racial wizards as a house rule I gave nurgle a spell called stream of filth, which was essentially the same as a fireball albeit a different shaped template. I'm sure the rules are still hidden away on this site somewhere.

However I do really like the idea of the Horticulturalist of nurgle, the article was a good entertaining read and neat idea. To buff the existing spells I would probably leave Vigorous Growth alone, it is a very situational spell, but one that could get some use if the main spelll made the Horticulturalist worth taking.

As for Strange Fauna, of your two suggestions "always 3" would make it a consideration. I'm still not sure I would bother with it to be honest, but I would at least consider it. Another option would be D3 (as the rules are now) then a 3+ to hit instead of the 4+. That would be a substantial buff, but would need some testing.

[TheAzman]

I wasn't responding to whether it was worth taking, but to your comment about having one on hand. If your want your comments to be taken more seriously, cut out the ridiculous hyperbole.

^^This^^

[Baxx]

What is the difference between Plague Doctor and Igor exactly? Originally teams like Khemri, Undead, Necromantic and Nurgle could buy Igor to re-roll a failed ressurection roll. Now, Khemri, Undead and Necromantic have the Igor while Nurgle (and Chaos Renegades) have the Plague Doctor? The only difference I can see is that Chaos Renegades now basically can buy an "Igor", something I would have done for them in a separate Spike! magazine for that team, instead of sneaking it in with Nurgle.

[fromherashes]

What is the difference between Plague Doctor and Igor exactly? Originally teams like Khemri, Undead, Necromantic and Nurgle could buy Igor to re-roll a failed ressurection roll. Now, Khemri, Undead and Necromantic have the Igor while Nurgle (and Chaos Renegades) have the Plague Doctor? The only difference I can see is that Chaos Renegades now basically can buy an "Igor", something I would have done for them in a separate Spike! magazine for that team, instead of sneaking it in with Nurgle.

Igor’s only allow a re-roll of a failed regen roll, Plague Doctors allow that or a KO to stunned.

[Baxx]

Igor’s only allow a re-roll of a failed regen roll, Plague Doctors allow that or a KO to stunned.

Thanks that makes sense.