Building My First Blood Bowl Team in 20 Years

Building My First Blood Bowl Team in Twenty Years

In my previous article, I looked back at my history with Blood Bowl, from the Champions of Death in the 1990s through the Living Rulebook era and eventually to the conversation with Pete from the Agents of Sigmar that finally persuaded me to return to the game.

At the time of writing, I still haven't played a game using the current edition of Blood Bowl.

Before any dice are rolled, before any touchdowns are scored and before any opponents become half-time snacks I need to build and paint my new Ogre team.

I never play a game with unpainted miniatures and I have no intention of starting now. Over the years I have developed my own way of approaching hobby projects and it has remained remarkably consistent since I first started collecting Warhammer Fantasy Battle back in 1990.

I always build and paint the mandatory models first.

Once the essentials are complete, I can reward myself by working on the more interesting pieces. Whether it was rank-and-file infantry in Warhammer Fantasy Battle, core troops in Warhammer 40,000 or basic fighters in Warhammer Underworlds, I have always preferred to get the hard work out of the way before moving onto the fun part.

For more of my Blood Bowl articles (this is still very new, I started on the 11^th July!)

What's in the Box?

The Ogre team box contains two identical plastic sprues. Together they provide enough components to make four Ogres, one of which can be built as a Runt Punter, and twelve Gnoblars. The sprues also included the usual Blood Bowl accessories: team coins, balls and turn markers.

The Two Ogre Team Sprues

My first impression was that Blood Bowl teams represent surprisingly good value compared to some of Games Workshop's other ranges. A modern Warhammer Underworlds warband typically costs around £29 and contains somewhere between three and nine miniatures, with most warbands containing around five fighters (I think is good value). By comparison, this Blood Bowl team costs £34 and contains sixteen miniatures, along with the various gaming accessories needed for play. The coins in particular caught my attention. They would actually make rather useful turn counters in Warhammer Underworlds, and I would like to see something similar in Underworlds.

Assembly instructions with basic team rules, bases and transfers

Looking at the team roster, I realised there was a slight problem. A Blood Bowl Ogre team can field up to six Ogres, but the box only contains four. That means anyone wanting to develop the team fully will eventually need additional miniatures. In practical terms that means either buying a second team box and ending up with lots of duplicate models, or purchasing the Ogre Team Booster. 

The booster provides two additional Ogres and a single Gnoblar carrying a severed leg. Unfortunately, they are made from resin. I know some hobbyists enjoy working with resin but I am not one of them. In my experience, resin miniatures typically require more cleaning, more preparation, more gap-filling and the use of superglue rather than plastic cement. None of those things are particularly difficult, but they are aspects of the hobby I simply do not enjoy.

Games Workshop's plastic kits are generally a pleasure to build and, given the choice, I will always choose plastic over resin and if there is no other option, I will probably do without.

Building the Gnoblars

Although the Ogres are the stars of the team, I actually began by building the Gnoblars.

This might seem a slightly odd choice. After all, most people buying an Ogre team are probably excited about the Ogres rather than the little green guys. However, I have a hobby habit that stretches all the way back to my first Warhammer Fantasy Battle army in 1990. Whenever I start a new army or force, I always begin with the mandatory models first. In Warhammer Fantasy Battle it was the rank-and-file infantry. In Warhammer 40,000 it was the core troops. The exciting characters, monsters and centrepieces always came later.

The logic is quite simple. If I build and paint the interesting models first, everything that remains can start feeling like a chore. By tackling the essential models at the beginning, I get the hard work out of the way and everything that follows feels like a reward. More than three decades later, I still approach projects in exactly the same way. So, despite being far more interested in building the Ogres, the Gnoblars were first onto the workbench. Once I have painted twelve Gnoblar, I will not need any more, no matter how much I expand the team.

Each Gnoblar consists of two parts: a body and a head. Across the two sprues there are six different body designs and seven different heads, although one of those heads is intended for the unfortunate Gnoblar being held by an Ogre ready to be punted down the pitch.

A single sprue from the Ogre Team box set

Assembly was straightforward. The components clipped cleanly from the sprue and required very little preparation before gluing. In fact, one of the first things I noticed about the kit was the lack of mould lines. Apart from cleaning up the points where the components had been clipped from the sprue, there was very little work required before assembly.

I found myself particularly drawn towards the helmeted (rugby scrum style) Gnoblar heads. There is something rather endearing about them. These little guys appear to be taking the sport seriously. They have turned up wearing protective equipment, ready for the big game and apparently determined to do their best for the team. This is quite sad. They are still tiny gnoblar. It is going to be like a bunch of keen 5-year-old children turning up to 1980s football hooligan face-off.

The Gnoblar

Gnoblars are not particularly intelligent creatures. They are marginally brighter than Snotlings and generally fulfil one task extremely well. In Hrothgorn's Mantrappers (Warhammer Underworlds), that task might be carrying a trap or helping reload a crossbow. In Blood Bowl their duties are rather different. Run with the ball. Hold the ball. Kick an opponent in the shin. Try not to get eaten. I suspect very few of them understand the rules of Blood Bowl and fewer still will survive the game unharmed.

The best little guy

However, one Gnoblar, in particular, is quickly becoming my favourite. He is wearing a little helmet and is standing with his fist raised in the air, he looks utterly determined to take on the world. There is something wonderfully optimistic about him. Blood Bowl is rarely kind to Gnoblars and I suspect his future will be short rather than successful. Nevertheless, he is already my favourite member of the team.

Blood Bowl vs Warhammer Underworlds

Building the Gnoblars also highlighted some interesting differences between Blood Bowl and Warhammer Underworlds miniatures.

Underworlds miniatures are push-fit kits designed around unique, characterful sculpts. Every fighter is an individual with their own pose, equipment and scenic base. Blood Bowl approaches things differently. The miniatures are more traditional multi-part kits and require assembly with glue. The team is built from two identical sprues, which does result in some miniatures looking very similar. At first glance this might appear to be a disadvantage, but I am not entirely convinced it is.

Blood Bowl teams need visual consistency. An opponent should be able to identify player positions quickly and easily across the pitch. Having similar poses and equipment actually helps communicate what role each player performs within the team.

The bases also differ significantly. Underworlds miniatures come with sculpted bases that contribute to the character of the model. Blood Bowl miniatures are supplied with plain gaming bases instead, freeing up more space on the sprues for additional players.

Visit my Warhammer Underworlds hub for Underworlds content→

Building the Ogres

With the Gnoblars complete, it was finally time to move onto the stars of the team.

The Ogres went together very well. Again, mould lines were minimal and easily removed with the edge of a modelling knife. Assembly was straightforward and the parts fit together cleanly. 

Initially, I had hoped there would be a lot of room for customisation. The kit includes various heads, gut plates and shoulder armour options and, on the sprue, it appears as though there should be plenty of opportunities to make each Ogre unique. In practice, the options are slightly more limited than they first appear.

For example, I had hoped to use the armoured helmeted head on more than one Ogre. Unfortunately, on the running Ogre there is a raised lip behind the neck armour that forces the helmeted head to look downwards at an awkward angle. In the end I swapped it for an unarmoured head, which looked much more natural.

I also spent quite a bit of time trying to make the Runt Punter stand out visually from the other Ogres. My original idea was to combine the kicking body with the arm carrying a Gnoblar, creating a much more distinctive model. Unfortunately, the parts simply do not fit together particularly well. I experimented with different combinations of gut plates and shoulder pads, eventually giving the Punter the round Chaos-style shoulder shield while leaving the kite shields for the Blockers. Even then, the differences remain subtle.

The Ogres, the left most is, in theory, the Punter.

In the end, my conclusion is that the Ogres are best built largely as intended. There is enough variation to avoid complete duplication, but not enough to make every Ogre a truly unique sculpt. Most importantly, I found it surprisingly difficult to distinguish the Runt Punter from the other Ogres once all four models had been assembled. Perhaps that simply reflects the realities of an Ogre team. After all, they are all enormous, heavily armoured brutes whose primary contribution to the game is hitting things very hard not messing about trying to score.

A Minor Base Problem

My biggest annoyance with the kit actually had nothing to do with the miniatures themselves. It was the bases. The Ogre bases supplied with the kit are slotta bases designed to accommodate the basic miniatures found in the starter set. Unfortunately, the Ogres themselves do not require slotted bases, leaving a rather obvious gap once the model has been attached.

Rather than filling the slots, I decided to use some spare round bases from my bits box. That solved one problem but created another. The replacement bases do not have the hole required to hold the ball marker during the game. As a result, I will be handling the ball in a decidedly old-school manner and simply balancing it beside the player, much as we did in the 1990s. 

Ready for Paint

With the final Ogre assembled, I now have a complete team sitting on my painting desk. Overall, I have been impressed with the kit.

The Team

The Gnoblars are packed with character, the Ogres assemble cleanly and the whole team feels like excellent value as a starting point for Blood Bowl. The kit perhaps offers less variety than I initially expected and I can already see challenges in expanding the roster beyond the contents of a single box.

For now, the building phase is complete. I now need to paint them.

After all, if they are not painted, why would they do what I want them to do on the pitch?

Next Time: Choosing a colour scheme and painting my Ogre Blood Bowl team before my first game.

You can find all of my Blood Bowl articles on the Blood Bowl Hub.

For painting guides and other content Start Here 

If you have any thoughts, questions or experiences of your own, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment below and share your experiences of building Blood Bowl teams, particularly if you have found a good solution for expanding an Ogre roster without resorting to resin miniatures.

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