Blood Bowl’s Second Season Edition is fast approaching, and excitement is at fever pitch, with teams popping up left, right, and centre. We grabbed a few coaches from the Warhammer Community and Blood Bowl rules teams and asked them what they’re working on.
Jay Clare – Sewer Pipe Scoundrels
Jay: When it comes to Blood Bowl, I’ve always favoured the speedier, high-scoring teams – particularly the sneaky Skaven. In fact, my very first team was a Skaven one some 13 years ago. I’ve had quite a bit of success with this team over the years, managing to win the odd league or tournament here and there, and also recording my biggest ever win with them – a huge 8-0 victory!
When it came to painting the fantastic plastic Skaven team, I wanted to make a newer version of my original Sewer Pipe Scoundrels. I also wanted to recreate the Scoundrels’ old kit colours, complete with bright orange armour plates, which I think is quite an unusual and striking colour scheme!
With the new season of Blood Bowl about to kick off, I’m hoping that the Sewer Pipe Scoundrels can pick up where they left off in the previous edition – scoring lots of touchdowns, picking up trophies, and generally being sneaky so-and-sos!
Simon Grant – Da Wun Hit Wunderz
Simon: My love of Orc teams dates back to when I first started playing Blood Bowl. I've always chosen to be inspired by the narrative of the games I play, and in the case of Blood Bowl, I couldn't think of any team more likely to enjoy the game’s ultra-violent nature than Orcs. What's more, they're pretty good at it too! After all, they've got Black Orcs for krumpin', Blitzers for runnin' (and krumpin'), and Throwers for luggin' the ball (and krumpin'). By including Goblins and a Troll, you can even add the threat of a one-turn touchdown with Throw Team Mate.
Da Wun Hit Wunderz are actually the third Orc team I've collected over the years, and are all kitbashed from a variety of different sources. My team is sponsored by Bootz of Gutrottingham's Khemikul Solushunz, who dabble in concoctions of ’shrooms and no-doubt highly illegal substances in order to give the Wunderz "da edge". Their research has borne some fruit, at least, in the form of the monstrous Orc abomination known simply as Da Freak, and the team's mascot, Gobblez, a Squig hybrid bred to display the team's quartered colours. As you probably surmised, I use Da Freak as a Troll – suffice it to say that the same experiments that granted the Orc his enormous size also took a toll on his mind!
Nick Bayton – Da Spiderfang Scramblerz
Nick: Like Simon, I've had a soft spot for greenskins ever since I first played Blood Bowl. I always enjoyed krumpin' 'eads with Orcs! But when the new Goblin team got released, I fell in love with them. Cheeky, hapless little chaps who played dirty and never won fair, if at all… I was sold. They might play a little (read: VERY) differently to an Orc team, but greenskins are basically all the same, right? Just replace bone-crunching blocks from a Black Orc with a horrendous foul or a giant ball and chain and you're there. They can even have two Trolls! When it came to playing games with them, I soon found out it was very, very different to playing with Orcs. All of a sudden I was dodging away from Tackle Zones rather than running into them and learning a variety of special rules for the glorious secret weapons.
My team is modelled to be a Forest Goblin team, coming from the jungles of the Blood Bowl world. All of their heads are taken from the Arachnarok Spider and Forest Goblin Spider Riders kits, and I used bright colours to make them more, well, jungly. The Trolls are made from Fellwater Troggoths, with the idea being that they look a little like giant poisonous tree frogs! My head coach, Braingit, is made from a Grot Shaman model, and I've painted up all of the special weapons too, which are GREAT fun. My particular favourite is the Loon with a chainsaw, which I can only assume was left in the jungle by some now-deceased tree fellers.
Joel Townsend – Ancalen Bolts
Joel: With most games I play, I immediately go for the Elves, and Blood Bowl is no exception. I love the idea of all Elven players coming together, regardless of faction, so I picked up the Elven Union team.
When I bought the team, I also bought the dice and all the other bits, as I wanted it all to match. I decided to paint them in the same colours as the dice, using some of the artwork for the Celestial Comets as a guide.
Playing Elves in Blood Bowl is great fun and it makes me very competitive! (I mean, we are the best…) You do, however, have to play smart. We can’t take a punch quite as easily as other teams, and the players are very pricey, so we have to run, jump, and dodge our way to touchdowns. Elven teams are certainly very rewarding and have a great line-up.
Jonathan Taylor-Yorke – Kharak Wanderers
Jonathan: This is actually the fourth or fifth incarnation of this team. I like Dwarfs (no apologies!), and I quite like to regularly update a team that I’ve enjoyed playing for many a long year now. So, whenever new models come along, I treat it as an excuse to give the players a new kit and paint a fresh version.
For this incarnation, the famous Wanderers got a red and gold kit with black and white accents. In the past, they’ve worn blue, purple, and green – and I think the next version will see them in green, gold, and white. Changing the colour represents, to me, the team wandering from hold to hold, settling down for a season with new sponsors, before moving on again in search of gridiron glory.
With this team, I broke away from the traditional turf pitch and used Shattered Dominion bases. This was inspired by the Dwarf and Skaven pitch. I think it really helps tie them to the stadium they play in most often and makes the models stand out from the crowd; those bases are certainly bright!
Jonathan Taylor-Yorke (again) – Unnamed Black Orcs
Jonathan: Since handing over the text for the new rulebook to our talented layout artists, I haven’t had much time for painting Blood Bowl models (unfortunately). Other projects here at Games Workshop have seen me inspired to furiously paint other things in every spare moment… but I have been eagerly awaiting the new Black Orcs.
This brand-new team is a personal favourite, and seeing it develop was a real privilege. I would regularly visit the desk of the sculptor to see how they were coming along, waiting (most impatiently) for the day I could have some of my own in shiny plastic.
Well, I finally got some, and the first thing I decided was that they were going to be similar to the team I’d quickly converted and painted to playtest and develop the roster (which had red armour and brown leather), but not exactly the same. The deep red and bright white contrast nicely with the green skin, which is appropriate, because this model was painted mostly with Citadel Contrast paints and a few highlights. This was a very quick paint job, and I’m eager to get the rest of the team painted and onto the pitch!
Thanks to all our coaches! If you have teams to share, use #WarhammerCommunity so that we can see them – we can’t wait to feast our eyes on all the gridiron glory! If you’re not working on a Blood Bowl team, there’s never been a better time, with the new edition on the way and loads of plastic teams available – check out the range and choose yours.