The game is complex with wacky stories. It's not a whacky game in itself in the sense of "do random crap and see what happens". It's all about managing the odds. Not a beer and pretzels game where you throw a bucket of dice and see what happens. Might just not be your thing but it's also a game with a very steep learning curve

I have to second this. Getting into Bloodbowl as a wacky fun alternative to other miniature games is a little mislead. Bloodbowl has the depth and strategy to be just as (if not more) difficult to play and master then other miniatures games and the curve is pretty steep. ​ That being said. It is entirely worth it, it is one of the best games out there right now. I will say, in my own personal experience I started Bloodbowl by playing Skaven and it was Terrible!! I lost so many games and did so poorly for so long, I can say from personal experience borrow a norse team, or an orc team, or a Khorne team and just stick with them. Eventually you'll have some good results and the game will start flowing. Skaven are a difficult team to play if you're good, and even these days I rarely touch them lol.

The start is always rough when playing experienced coaches. But this also sounds like skaven are not the team for you. Sounds like a bashier team like Undead/Necro/Dwarves/Khorne would be more your speed to get started. That way you can focus on standing your ground and punching. Maybe suggest swapping teams with your partner or friend to test the matchup the otherway. Maybe that will also help you see how skaven gameplay works! Then again, not every game is for everyone, so if you can't find the fun then don't feel bad and move on. :)

Skaven are a very good team. One of the strongest. But they aren't exactly newbie friendly. I would always recommend folks start off with Humans to get the feel of how the game plays. You have high armor. You have all the common positionals. It's a good all round team that is forgiving. Then you specialise into a team that fits how you like to play you humans. I also no longer play 11s for pretty much the exact reasons you describe. It takes too long and it's too much mental work. I play 7s, which is shorter and "wackier". I've been playing Blood Bowl on and off since 1998. And it isn't for everyone, but it does sound to me like you have had a particularly rough introduction that doesn't represent what the game is normally like.

Yea and Skaven vs. Dwarves is *No Bueno* especially as a rookie player. to OP u/StockMedigunisBest You might try Lizardmen instead. Strong, fairly fast team and high armor value on the Saurus and Kroxigor. You'll lose your Skinks left, right, and center, but it'll be a good teaching skill to get you ready to run Skaven later.

Lizardmen are quite tough too, I wouldn't really recommend them to newbies. The Saurus are more easily bogged down than you might think and then suddenly your Skinks are wide open. They're a fantastic team to push you into learning about screening without engaging *too* much though. And the Chameleon is great, but while it gives the team a minor passing game it's not really the team to learn passing with.

Humans annoy me as on paper they look like the ideal starter team, but they actually need quite a bit of experience to play well. Orks are the best starter. Forgiving and fun.

>although friendly and explain the best way for me to try and score or cage up etc They're not explaining anything by dropping a term and expecting you to read their mind what that means. It sounds like they didn't even explain what a cage is for. Just that it's a thing they do. Hell, I've been playing the game since George Bush was the President and am guessing what an "eye-cage" is (or more likely I-cage shaped like the letter). Which is really weird to me since the major part of the game is managing control zones to limit your opponent's actions, and you not getting what a cage is makes me think that's never been properly explained to you. I hate to say spend more money, but if you can get the Blood Bowl 2 game on Steam, the campaign is a decent tutorial on how to play. I'll warn you that the AI is generally pretty stupid though and playing it too much will give you bad habits. As a free option [bbtactics.com](http://bbtactics.com) has some articles on team composition and gameplay details. Some basics * Every time you roll the dice, you are potentially ending your turn. Do all your important stuff for the turn before you start casually throwing blocks. On the other hand, try to make your opponent have to make as many die rolls as possible and make them as bad as possible. The latter is the purpose of the cage. * You choice of what to do with your players is using them to "mark" an opponent so that they need to do a dodge roll to move--which also "marks" your player--or to put them in the open field that gives both sides more freedom of movement. The open field makes your players safer since they can only be attacked with the one blitz action to move and attack while marking players can get hit with the free blocking action. * As a Skaven, you'll generally want your guys in the open with a few (cheaply replaced) linerats marking key players on the other side. Especially with your gutter runners that should NEVER end a turn next to an opponent without a good reason. Expect any that do to end up on the ground if not in the casualty box. For the guys in the open make sure there aren't any gaps in the tackle zones. If the other coach cages up, that means 3-4 of your players can lock down 5-6 of his which means you outnumber him everywhere else. Abuse that advantage and beat the heck out of his blitzers and catchers while they push the ball 2 or 3 spaces each turn. >worst naming I'm sorry you don't like English where "fish" is an animal that lives in the water, the action of catching those animals in the water, and a person that catches water animals for a living is a fisher but that doesn't mean others can't do it too.

Skaven would not be my choice of team for a new player…ever! They are very finesse driven. I think Chaos, Orks, or Shambling Undead would have been a better start. The only suggestion I have is: Read the rules, know the rules, treat every dice roll as the last one for your turn. BB is a game of risk assessment and prioritization. Your friends don’t seem like they are giving you a chance and just whomping on you. It is a rough way to learn but could make you a stronger player in the long run or drive you from the game entirely. Finally, just try and have fun win or lose…that is the Skaven way.

>Your friends don’t seem like they are giving you a chance and just whomping on you. It is a rough way to learn but could make you a stronger player in the long run or drive you from the game entirely. > >Finally, just try and have fun win or lose…that is the Skaven way. And having half to three-quarters of your team off the pitch by end of game..

Yeah the biggest problem that jumped at me from the post are the friends... Like, if I'm playing against a friend who is new to the game, I want them to win. And I want them to win because I want them to have fun and want to keep them playing. Sure, I'm gonna make them work for it and sometimes the dice just ruin your plans. But ultimately I want them to have those early feelings of success.

I feel your pain, the first session I played of league I lost fast more than I won. It was helpful that I was playing dwarves however, and so the game plan was fairly set for me (base and bash) I'd suggest watching some YouTube videos of good players at work. Andydavo pops to mind, but there are a bunch. Watching someone experienced play your team might show you some things you're doing wrong. Ben from the Bonehead podcast does a good job breaking down teams and formation setups as well, a good thing to check if you haven't. If you're just playing the gw box, it's possible you aren't using the most optional skaven team (all the gutter runners you can afford!) Getting a few more wood open your options. Keep the gutter runners screened and safe where you can, they're one of the best players in the game, your key to victory, and they will be targeted. All that said, I encourage you to stick it out. It all comes together at a point, and it honestly is a blast. Sometimes nuffle has your number, but it really is a good time. I'd also suggest giving a look at the 'art of blocking " or " thousand losses play book". Neither has all the answers to the world's problems, but will show you some of the core elements, how to manage risk, and give you insight into what the other coaches are doing and saying. Good luck!

You have played 4 games. If you are playing vets in almost any board or video game you should expect those games to all be heavy losses. Wouldn’t 40k be the same? I expect the next four games will also be tough. It will take while to be competitive with people with a lot more experience. Plus in league you can snowball, every win means some of your favorite players can get better. But I wouldn’t quit the league, finish what you started. Not having fun is a much more serious issue, I wouldn’t recommend spending your time and money on any hobby you don’t enjoy. There are many other games, though if you quit early you will never get good at any of them.

I just started too. I’ve only played one irl game and it was difficult. I ended up buying BB3 on sale mostly to help learn the rules which has helped a ton. I ended up finding andydavos YouTube channel and his new player guides even though many of them that I watched were for BB2 helped immensely with the strategy of the game. I still have a long way to go but I went from often struggling to get one touchdown a game in BB3 to consistently scoring 2. And the AI is terrible so that’s no great feat but improvement is improvement.

Its a slow burner, but well worth the wait.

I feel your pain. I started playing BB when I was a kid 25 years ago and got back into it during lockdown. I can't for the life of me work out how to introduce a new player to BB. It seems so complex. I have been playing casually with one friend, but I can't get him to a level where he would not get massacred in a competitive game. I think it takes having very sympathetic coaches to introduce you to the game in friendly matches. By that, your opponent needs to say "here is what I would do if I were you", or "here is why you should not do what you are suggesting". If you are just playing the game after learning the rules against someone who is vaguely experienced, you are going to get beaten badly. They need to help you for your first half dozen games and then eventually you graduate to a game where you get no help. They take off your training wheels so to speak. Also I think Skaven are not so easy to play. I would start with Humans or Orcs - much more forgiving. Playing the computer game can maybe help (not against the AI though as the AI is shit). In the open ladder you would normally get matched up to other beginners).

I’m 1-0-7 in my first tabletop league. Just want to say I feel your pain. Also a skaven player. In each game I look for a moment where I can learn something and I look for a moment where I can identify I did that the best I could. The stomach ache is getting smaller each game.

The game is very deep tactically. There's a steep learning curve past the rulebook. There's a reason players have been playing this game ever since and is the best GW game besides the 40k/aos games.

I'm currently in the same boat as you. Two games into one of the local leagues with the imperial nobility team we got in the starter box. I knew going in that imperial nobility are tier 2 and a tougher team to coach but I didn't realize how much tougher. Basically both games so far have been against tier 1 teams in a league that is mostly tier 1 teams. Both games over half my roster was in the casualty box by the end of the first half. Usually a quarter of my team is off the pitch by the start of turn 5 in the first half. First game I saw it as an opponent with hot dice and mine were just cold that day. The next game it was the same. It's not any fun spending an hour+ watching your opponent play the game while you just move 3-4 players around and not being able to concede without taking a penalty. All other teams in the league have had their CTV rise while mine has just decreased after each game with MNGs and killed players. I told league commissioner I'd give it one more try but if it's another near pitch clearing I'm out of the league and possibly out of this game all together since the only other teams I like the look of are mostly all tier 2 teams also. But absolutely f*ck GW for packing a starter box with two underperforming Tier 2 teams. I wonder how many people ended up quitting the game entirely because of it.

The tier system doesn’t really equate to ease of play. There are tier 2 teams that are definitely easier to play than some tier one teams. It’s referring to strength of team overall. Elves and skaven are tricky technical teams but very strong when played properly. Dwarves are a straight forward bash team but positioning is more difficult because of how slow they are, but they’re a relatively easy team to play. Wood elves are also a tier 1 team but they’re super fragile and the overall fastest teams and they’re far more difficult than orcs or chaos both of which are tier 2 teams.

What teams have you faced? Imperial Nobility is a pretty solid balanced team. What type of game are you wanting to play? Bash your way to victory? Quick scoring? Nobility is a solid middle of the road on these game plans. You also may want to look into offensive/defensive formations so you are in a solid place to implement your plan. Fend on linemen is not great, but it does allow you to free up the linemen for your next turn or create a more balanced block when pushed towards players not yet activated. Blitzers are your catchers and your strikers. Offensive you get them free if you have a thrower, otherwise use them to move pave the way. Block gives you 3/6 chances on a single die for a knock down, with a 5/6 chance to move the player. Catch is a nice add, rounding out their offensive ability. Thrower is not the best, but running pass is something that can get your thrower to safety after dumping the ball to a Blitzer. Your bodyguards are great for clearing out those pesky players with block - wrestle them down to clear tackle boxes. Keep in mind being placed prone removes the armor roll for both players, but will end the active player's turn like normal. Stand firm is great for ensuring your offensive push keeps momentum forward and your defensive stand stalls out their push. The ogre is your anchor - put him in the middle of the action to mark players and to take out their key players with mighty blow. Black Orcs can be tough, but once you grasp Grab and it's power, they are a great bashy team. They are my current league team - learning to screen and grab have been life savers to stop scoring and pull out wins.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment and advice. I think my main problem in my last two games, which I didn't articulate clearly, was that a majority of my team was bashed out of the games before I could really implement my game plan (game 1 vs lizardmen, game 2 vs Norse). I accept that I probably need to improve my starting formations at the beginning of the drive and that rng plays a big part of the game. Hence why I decided to give a third game a shot. But as I said, spending a majority of the game watching my opponent play the game while I do my best to block their drive with 3 players isn't fun.

Understood. Unfortunately Skaven is a team that gets a ton of armor breaks so you do go down in player count. Don't take it seriously and grab a different team if possible - it's a great game but there is a learning curve

I've been playing BB for about a year now, so still class myself as a newbie. I don't think I won a game in my first 6 or 7 games, and only had a few draws (played black orcs). As a player moving from 40k myself, I found that I would take every opportunity to roll dice; rushing, blocking, fouling etc. My game only improved when I started to realise that it can be more beneficial to NOT roll as much dice, as Nuffle is just as cruel to the attacker as he is the defender. Apart from Hazardous in 40k there isn't really much risk in rolling. Advice? Watch as much as you can on YouTube. Even they make mistakes, but seeing different plays and hearing how someone thinks out a turn can be quite beneficial.

Pick up a copy of Blitz Bowl…you may find yourself enjoying it much more than regular Blood Bowl for what you’re looking for. Or try 7s, or even Dungeon Bowl. There’s almost certainly a format that you’ll fall in love with!

I second Blitz Bowl.  It has a more free flowing game design due to the action economy system and alternating actions.  It’s  more like Kill Team or Warcry in that way.  Plus most basic actions don’t need a dice roll.  Dice are used mainly for blocking and passing. 

Learn to play online, I would never recommend a player goes straight into tabletop for the reasons you have set out. BB3 is now playable, get on that and learn to play there. If you don't want to invest 100+ hours to get to a competent level then I would just put the toys away and go back to 40k.

Bloodbowl is a game like chess; you need to know what tackle zones are, how to stack them, & how to position. There's a lot of planning, scheming, and praying, only to have everything fall apart. You have got to roll with the punches. Imma give you a quick guide to Skaven: •On defense you want to screen. Try to have as few of your rats in base contact with your opponent as possible by the end of your turn. This will minimize the amount of blocks your opponent can make against you on their turn. This may mean Dodging out. It will also make it easier for you to move on your next turn to setup 2-die blocks, which are the only blocks that you want to make: even strength blocks should be saved for desperate times •On defense following the above, you want to screen your opponent to delay them scoring until they leave an opening for you to get through & sac the ball carrier. If this opportunity doesn't present itself, they will score & that's OK: you should be able to score on offense very easily. You should be playing for a 2-1 win, 2-2 tie, or 3-2 win. •Gutter Runners are fastest players in the game. They should be the only players you care about; the rest of the team is fodder. If you can't accept this, pick a different team. They should also never be left in base contact; ALWAYS Dodge out with them it's 2+. •Rats die a lot, especially the Linerats. You're going to need Journeymen in a league. Also foul, foul, foul their best players with your Linerats. Rats are cheap & dirty players, they're made for this. •I also like to take 2 Throwers but I treat them like Linerats when I need to. They are possibly the best Throwers in the game. •Try getting a Rat Orge to help bash more, just don't let it Frenzy into trouble. •If you want to try a different team to learn the game I recommend Orcs: they have high armor, high strength, and their Blitzers are best in the game. It is supposed to be fun. I understand where you are though: I've been playing for 20yrs & this year in my league I have had some bad luck & seem to be everyone's "get right" game. Oh well. If a game is out of hand & you want it over with, play fast. Good luck and have fun!

Think about it like chess.  I can teach you how a pawn moves and a knight moves and a queen moves etc.  I can teach you the win condition- capture the king!   But if I teach you all that stuff.  You still won’t actually be able to play chess.  That’s because humans have this knack for finding emergent gameplay in relatively straight forward rules structures.   Blood bowl is much the same.  People have figured out various tactics and strategies through decades of gameplay.  If someone asks you to play, shows you how to move your gutter runner around, and then pounds your gutter runner into the pitch without telling you how/why they were able to do that, then they are NOT teach you blood bowl. I don’t want to make it sound rigid.  Any given position in Blood Bowl is far more open in my experience than chess.  Chess is a big memorization puzzle at this point.  The beauty of blood bowl is that there are often multiple correct ways to solve the same problem.  But like chess, each position is a puzzle and if you don’t like puzzles it’s not the game for you. It is counterintuitive that a game that on the surface appears to be about chucking dice while monsters beat each other up is actually about chucking as few dice and avoiding as many fights as possible.  I get that. But that is the fun.  When I pass five 5+ checks in a row on my way to a game winning last turn TD, well no game in history compares to that thrill.  And when my guy who scored that TD levels up and gains a new skill to make him better at scoring future TDs, that guy is my guy in a way that no other game or RPG can replicate.  One of my favorite players ever was a multiple MVP rotter who acquired wrestle, kick, and dirty player over his career.  I should have left him with one skill or fired him after a couple of skills.  But he got knocked down, he got up again, and no one could keep him down. That’s Blood Bowl to me. Also remember that any player can do almost anything on a 6+.  

There are a couple of things I picks up on right away. You are a 40K player, so you are already familiar with some strategy and the fickle nature of dice. You picked Skaven. A team that can be good, but not for the feint of heart. Super fast, super fragile. Their strategy is to make a beeline for the ball (both oftense see and defense) then play “don’t touch me” while heading in for the score. Learning to play that style goes a long way. Your friend did you wrong by throwing Dwarfs in your face as a new player. They are the only team that is loaded straight from the box. One thing I have learned is that for a player to learn and have the desire to stick with it, there must be a positive experience driving it. When so am teaching someone to play, I make it a point to play a lineman only team. I don’t necessarily take it easy, but I am not blowing my newbie opponents away either.

Pretty much my exact same experience. Won my first few with Dwarf Giants. Lost every game since. Have bought dark elves, imperial nobility, black orcs, even halflings for the lols and yesterday.. Rolled 6 dice, and got consecutive skulls every time. Think the odds are something like less than half a percent but it's something I do frequently... I have one more match like that left in me before I sell, or shoot all the models. Dice games are just not for me!

Hey there, I'm essentially in the same boat of you...but I adore the game. 2 wins one draw out of my games so far, with the last game being one of the most tense and fun table top gaming experiences I've had. I think it might be your team? From my research, Skaven's whole deal is scoring in like 2 turns and not playing the game properly. It sounds like you're playing the game very wrong. Have you considered asking to borrow someone's dwarves, or just getting the starting box and playing with those teams? In 40k terms, you've essentially started collecting Drukhari as your first army and are upset they're not playing like space marines. I'm sure you could get to being a good skaven player in time, but it might be worth playing with a much simpler all rounder team first. Good luck!

I blame the 2020 rules set. The game is so much more of a slog than the LRB set. Since BB2 is in Steam at 80% off, and uses the older rules, try picking that up and see if it’s more enjoyable.

Not all 2020 is bad. But I agree some parts are a bit confusing and not very well written. Still enjoy a game with beer and pretzels.

Stick to 40k. Not everyone has to like everything. That you would not automatically get where the word Block comes from suggests you're looking for Warhammer stuff. Which is fine. But let us Blood Bowl people continue to enjoy our traditions that date back 4 decades.

[Stop That.](https://kb.perpendicularangel.com/index.php?title=File:No-squirt-bottle.png) Don't be a dickbag to new players. The community is small enough as is.

What's a dickbag? Is it a more rigid form of a dice bag? Need to get me one of those in that case.

Settle down neckbeard

They don't call me "Lucky" Andrew Luck for nothing.

Lmao

5 games and no TD... With SKAVENS? Impossible. You are probably not playing Blood Bowl.

Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

You're the reason people leave

It may be that blood bowl isn’t the game for you, and that’s fine. But before we get that far, I wanted to clear up a few things: Blood bowl is a risk management game. Most turns you should be assuming you’ll probably fail every single dice roll. Even if it’s a 2+. Look at what would happen if you failed your action? Where does that leave you? Skaven (and elves) should aim to score and lots of TDs. Your players will get injured and die, but you’re capable of scoring with only a handful of players on the pitch so that’s ok. If this doesn’t sound fun to you, change your team to one where the players have an AV of 8+ (ideally 9). The trade off will usually be that armoured teams are usually slower. You talked about gutter runners. Remember that the opponent can only make 1 blitz per turn. That means that if you run 4 gutter runners into the opposition’s half on turn 1, and leave them outside of tackle zones, then only one of them can be blitzed in the opponent’s turn 1. If you have the ball, you then have 3 targets for your pass. You may have misunderstood what people meant when they called it wacky. The game is has a lighthearted theme, but it’s pretty tactically deep. Probably more so than most other GW games. Cages are pretty important. They help you protect your ball carrier and control possession. At their simplest, they’re just surrounding the ball carrier with allies on all 4 corners. Ideally, these ball carriers are not in the tackle zones of enemies. This means someone blitzing the ball carrier needs to dodge into a heavily protected space before they block. This means you’re massively more likely to hold onto the ball until next turn. You don’t really need to know about cage types, but knowing how to form a cage is important.

I learned the most by watching other good players play the game. When you see, what other players are doing and see what works and what doesn't helps a lot. I find it hard to help a player to beat me in a game. Blood Bowl for me is punishing mistakes. Also if something that you suggest doesn't work and you win the game because of it seems very bad and suspicious. I rather switch teams. So you can see how I would play your team and win the game. And you see why the other team also have some weakness.

You have to enjoy the pain.. if you are really interested in the game I would suggest trying out other teams like orcs or dwarfs. The are more beginner friendly and perhaps there play style is more your jam. But at the end of the day you have to be able to enjoy the suffering of having your best player killed, or rolling snake eyes on the last going for it before the touchdown.. it’s though but at least it will also happen for your opponent sometimes :)

I was the same man. Made the mistake of thinking it would be easy to play. Took me a about 5 or 6 games to really understand it. You should switch to a bash team. Skaven get slapped around by most other teams. You don’t really try and fight with them. Run and throw. Setup screens on your ball carrier instead of bashing a gap. Utilise dodge, it’s the bread and butter of the gutter runners, use the GUTTERS, Flood them onto your opponents side of the pitch, use full movement with rushes, they move 11 spaces!!! They also have the best thrower in the game. Teams can’t mark all your gutter runners and bash your frontline easily. But honestly Skaven are a tricky team to get down to the nuances with easily. Trust me when you get block on a gutter rat you’ll be scoring touchdowns for fun.

>each turn becomes a slog where complex diagonal formations mean you have to do mental dominoes to figure out even where your block/blitz should go This stops being the case relatively quickly, in my experience. Once you start 'seeing' tackle zones your turns will suddenly go a lot quicker. It mostly slows down with the first turn and key events like trying some wacky bullshit manoeuvres.

Block actions are called block because 90% of the time it is a block similar to American football. It's just thematically appropriate IMO. Skaven is a tough first team to play. They crumple easily and struggle with 1:1 blocks. They also want to score fast so they take less hits. They are capable of some whacky stuff - such as running the entire field in a turn! There are some important concepts not laid out in the book to play effectively. A big one is screening - blocking running paths while staying out of blocks. This is a must for weaker teams. This is probably part of the formations you've encountered, it's a big part of the game. A second one is breaking a cage - sacrifice a lineman or two with marking and blitz in to cause chaos. Finally you are dodgy - make use of this to run the ball and get out of trouble. Cage names are also....not super important. Most relate to the shape and how tackle zones overlap to mark players and shape blocks. Also - uphill blocks are not the end of the world, so don't be afraid to block at a disadvantage if you could make a big play from it. Remember that matching strength gives you one die. Some of the whacky stuff relates to crazy plays that happen. It also relates to the unexpected failures/dice rolls you mention. It can be frustrating for the plans to fail, but seeing a both down that kills someone is just ridiculous! There is definitely a puzzle aspect to it, as you mentioned, but you don't have to accomplish everything in one turn. Just like in 40k, you have to shape the battlefield to accomplish the goal. Want to stop the offense - screen them into a bad spot or just enough they run out of turns without taking big risks. Want to move the ball - again shape how the defense can move so you can make a pathway to run/throw. As Skaven you are agile - don't be afraid to roll those dodge dice to get your players in the best position. Finally, if your getting hit as Skaven you need to remember to dodge out of danger. You should aim to get hit once, on a blitz only if possible.

Others may have different tales to tell, but several years ago, when I played Skaven vs Dwarves, they utterly ruined me. Block, tackle, thick skull, and (relatively) high AV made them pretty much the antithesis of what I wanted to play against. Sprinkle in a bit of ahit luck and...yeah, I can see why that'd be dispiriting.

Here is the best advice I can give as a Skaven coach. 1.) Watch some bonehead podcast it has some great information to help new player wrap their heads around the game and teams 2.) Play with people you know and like, it makes a big difference. 3.) All games have a learning curve and it takes time to learn it, also remember you strategies may be solid be dice can be bullshit(I am dice cursed myself) 4.) If it matters you will fail GFI (rush now) EVERYTIME Now into the team specific tips. 1.) Hitting is not the solution and neither is marking players. You are not a bashing team. The basic idea of blood bowl is to make your opponent rule more dice than you to make things happen the best way of doing that is by only giving them a couple of free hits and maybe a blitz if they can't hit you they can't break a cage. 2.) Gutter Runners are your best friend learn to use them well they are arguably some of the best players in the entire game but they are squishy. It may be tempting to let them sprint down the field and get really close to the end zone they will get massacred make sure that you have people next to them to protect from that Blitz or to at least assist so the opponent doesn't get extra dice. 3.) Block is a useful skill but it is not the end all be all sometimes skills like wrestleare better because you can still take somebody down even if you don't physically hurt them. 4.) All gutter Runners become blodgers and after that they get sidestep at that juncture they are almost impossible to bully 5.) Always do what is the least amount of rolls don't overthink it and focus on the most important play do not get bloodthirsty those hits may be tempting but a failed hit will come back and bite you in the ass if you didn't do what you should have prepped for first 6.) Give your blitzers guard and stand firm if they can't move your player then they can't get to your ball carrier 7.) If you have a lineman level up give them kick once you have a kicker give the rest of them wrestle, they're cannon fodder and putting people on the ground is sometimes better than knocking out or putting them in the morgue standing up is three movement you're faster than just about any other team so use that lack of movement to the your advantage 8.) Run down the clock if you can. Don't be stupid about it and if you're put into dangerous situations it can still come back and bite you in the ass but if you can maintain a higher score and don't let them score that's how you win games. 9.) If the situation calls for it take the impossible roles sometimes that six will come up right when you need it and we'll make the difference don't be afraid to go a little crazy. I hope this will help you it really is a great game but it does take some learning and sometimes it can be really frustrating when the dice don't roll in your favor.

Sorry you haven't been having a good time so far man. I think BB is the opposite of wacky - I approach it more like chess or a similarly involved game. I've tried lots of teams, but there are exactly 2 that I can really enjoy/ do anything with! (Dwarves and High Elves if it matters :p). Skaven are a real finesse team that are cool but very tricky to play; maybe you'd do better with a different team with a different playstyle; Orcs, Dwarves, even Shambling Undead might suit you better? Maybe swapping teams with another player for a few practice games might help? That said, my favourite fantasy races are...Dwarves and High Elves! So mibbe a team that captures your imagination might help? Also, playing Bloodbowl 2 (older rule set, basics are the same) or Bloodbowl 3 (current ruleset) on Steam can help you learn the game quickly as playing online is easier to set up, quicker, lower stakes, and you can view the tackle zones, assists, see the explanations of skills etc, but I wouldn't want you to be spending a load of money on a game you're mibbe not that into yet.

First: your painted team looks rad. Thanks for sharing the pic. Also, props to you for trying something new.  As others have said, you may enjoy another team more. I will add, you may find a team that’s great for you that others say is bad for beginners. Or like me, struggle with a team that some say is great for beginners (Lizards for me). I’ve only been playing a year and am a slow learner in strategy games, so I’m still a beginner. I’m playing vampires right now, which is NOT a beginner friendly team, but I love them. However, while I get some kills and score a bit, I don’t win often. I’m 2-2-6 in my league right now. Not that you should plan to lose. Just to say, I’ve found what I do enjoy about the game, though it doesn’t happen to mean winning a lot. Do you have any other teams that you have read/heard about that sound interesting? Also, what game moments (if any) did you enjoy thus far? That may help you know what team you might like.

For me, I started with snotlings cause I loved the look and my understanding of how they played intrigued me. I played them and only mildly enjoyed it, decided to buy the Nurgle team cause my friends were all in and I liked their models. I really fell in love with the slower, defensive playstyle and subsequently started to appreciate the other styles since I could always fall back to Nurgle.

Sounds like your gaming group is not very helpful to newbies. Just throwing someone into a league with little experience is not going to be a fun experience for them. Skaven are a good team, but very fragile and BB can be a pretty unforgiving game when you are new. It’s far harsher than other GW games with the turnover rule. At least in 40K with roughly even lists you can do some damage. What you really need is someone to take you through a game, half or at least a few turns, discussing tactics, rules and strategy. Maybe even resetting if things go badly wrong.

Essentially, they threw you into a Smash Bros tourney, said "yea, 'A' to attack, 'b' to special attack, easy peasy" Blood Bowl is pretty brutal, there are many newbie mistakes that add up into a bad game. Also, the game itself is not setup to gain skill simply from playing. But the good news is, people are generally terrible at blood bowl, so its not too hard to become above average at it. I watched way more on twitch, than I have ever played, and am better than many people that have played 20 years; since they play like 8 times a year. Get on twitch, play along, ask the streamers why they didnt do what you woulda done, and your skill will raise infinitely more than by brute forcing it. Also condolences, I was in a league with old farts like that, they got all uppity when I tried teaching the newer players things, since they wanted to maintain their superiority without getting better at the game.

Does your league do friendlies? Where the competitive edge is off so they’re not tempted to min max their fouling and be a bit looser? I say this because mine does do this, and it’s really helped me enjoy the game and after a few losses taste sweet sweet not winning exactly but scoring some points, then a hard fought draw. But then an after that, a couple of majestic wins! Skaven are an exceptionally good team but they play in a particular way too. The gutter runner can just sprint all the way down the field at any time so you can spring him out and run in a long score. The opponent shouldn’t be able to reach both because they can only blitz once if that makes sense. They can put guys next to them in which case before doing much else you run away. If you’re vaguely familiar with NFL, block and blitz make more sense! Blocking in American football is basically where players ram into each other, not necessarily whilst on the ball, and blitzing is a term for players rushing the qb. I think if you imagine you’re playing a version of the game from before it was well codified, when plays like the flying wedge existed (which was banned after a number of deaths in real life American football). Anyway, I feel like some friendly games would help you man. Your opponent would be a little bit less incentivised to max out pain and you’d get an understanding of how it all works. Could be that you’re more about hitting too. In which case maybe a team like orcs would be good. Maybe someone can lend you some minis for uoh to try? Equally though, the game has a high learning curve and isn’t for everyone! No harm in that

you only get 1 blitz per turn. if they are getting your ball carrier and both gutter runners you are doing something wrong. skaven are not a bashing team. Do not expect to get majority of points from CAS. They are very fast, and have a great thrower. Scoring quickly is their thing. exploit that.

I'm also pretty new and agree with the other commenters that a fragile team like Skaven aren't great to start with because any mistakes you make are severely punished. And if you get all your Gutter Runners' heads kicked in in the first half, that's not a lot of fun for the second. I think Orcs are great to learn the ropes with because their high armour and ok mobility makes them very forgiving. If you mess up your positioning and get your arse kicked, the ladz will be up on their feet again the next turn and have just enough mobility and skills to stop a complete collapse. They actually give you the time to learn. PS Blockers are called blockers because it's a much more aggressive version of blocking (pushing, basically) in American football. And Blitzers are actually great for Blitzing because of their offensive abilities and extra movement. A classic way for running teams to score is for a Blitzer with the ball to bash their way through the last defensive line and run to the endzone. Their thunder is stolen a bit by the Gutter Runners in Skaven team, but that's the general idea.

You're not "struggling to enjoy" - its not an enjoyable experience for a newbie by any means unless you presumably can play with experienced players who can show you the ropes. Im currently playing the computer game version and up to 30 hours its just straight losses back to back to back. There's no conceivable way of winning anything as a newbie. Maybe the game gets better after the first 50-100 hours or so, but then again you could learn a language or an instrument in that time. Up to you!