Eurobowl Rosters - The Lowdown! pt. 2

by Dementor, Alex Davies

Part two of two - read the first piece here

Tier 3

High Elfs

Out of the commonly good races, and into some of the less common races seen regularly at tournaments. High elves are one of these less common teams, and they get a decent pack for being in tier 3.

2x Blitzers	2x Dodge	200
4x Catchers	4x Wrestle (Dodge [2])	360
1x Thrower		100
5x Linemen	1x Guard	350
3x Rerolls		150
		1160

Their best option is the extra skill pack, due to their good skill diversity. The cash option and stack option are both solid, with the cash option allowing you the apo instead of the rookie thrower and the stack option letting you rival dark elves in blodging/wrodging capabilities.

2x Blitzers	2x Dodge	200
4x Catchers	4x Wrestle (Dodge [2])	360
1x Thrower	1x Block (Kick)	100
5x Linemen	1x Guard	350
3x Rerolls		150
		1160

Humans

Another really interesting team build in this ruleset is humans, and most likely one I will be playing a decent amount myself when not khemri’ing. They get everything they want, and crucially one of the few teams with good access to a Sneaky Git/Dirty Player catcher and Mighty Blow/Tackle blitzer. I’ve gone for a block ogre however, in the vanilla roster, as they don’t have much else to spend it on. I’ve given them 3 catchers in this build, so would normally bench one or two matchup depending.

1x Ogre	1x Block	140
4x Blitzers	3x Guard, 1x Tackle	340
3x Catchers	1x Block	195
1x Thrower	1x Block	80
4x Linemen		200
3x Rerolls, 1x Apo		200
		1155

Now, onto the pretty great human build. Has a lot of opportunities to remove the opposition, even if it is a little swingy. I’ll give the same stipulation as I gave to the norse.

1x Ogre		140
4x Blitzers	3x Guard, 1x Tackle/Mighty Blow	340
3x Catchers	1x Sneaky Git/Dirty Player	195
1x Thrower		80
4x Linemen		200
3x Rerolls, 1x Apo		200
		1155

Necromantic

Now, necromantic. Probably the stand out of this tier, with them getting almost everything they want – with either flavour.

2x Flesh Golem	2x Guard	230
2x Werewolves	2x Block (Wrestle [1])	250
2x Wraiths	2x Guard	190
1x Ghoul	1x Block	75
5x Zombies	1x Dirty Player	200
3x Rerolls		210
		1155

For the packs, the only one really worth considering is the extra cash – necro are too expensive and skill lacking to take advantage of the others. The extra cash pack basically trades a dirty player zombie for a rookie ghoul, and with them being your main ball carriers, you really want the backup ghoul.

2x Flesh Golem	2x Guard	230
2x Werewolves	2x Block (Wrestle [1])	250
2x Wraiths	2x Guard	190
2x Ghoul	1x Block	150
4x Zombies		160
3x Rerolls		210
		1190

Tomb Kings

Moving on, to khemri (or tomb kings as some blasphemers like to call them) are quite nice in this ruleset – they get everything they want and more.

4x Tomb Guardians	4x Guard (Mighty Blow [1])	400
2x Blitzras	1x Tackle, 1x Mighty Blow (Guard [1])	180
2x Throras	2x Block (Leader [1])	140
6x Skeletons		240
3x Rerolls		210
		1170

They get a bit more interesting when it comes to the packs, especially as they can utilise the the extra skill pack quite well, getting four rerolls and being able to to lean a bit more into removal based gameplay.

4x Tomb Guardians	3x Guard, 1x Mighty Blow	400
2x Blitzras	1x Tackle, 1x Mighty Blow	180
2x Throras	1x Block, 1x Leader	140
6x Skeletons	1x Dirty Player	240
3x Rerolls		210
		1170

The dirty player is my wardancer/witch elf/rat ogre deterrent, and means the opponent is usually a bit less aggressive in the face of a large foul if they get knocked down.

Pro Elfs

Pro elves and high elves being in the same tier usually makes one of them obsolete, but it isn’t that much of a thing in team tournaments as there’s a reason to take the other one. Nothing too special in the spartan build, but 1170 is a mild breakpoint for them as it allows you to get a thrower and a 12 players + apo in.

2x Blitzers	2x Dodge	230
4x Catchers	2x Dodge, 2xWrestle (Block[1])	400
2x Throwers	1x Leader, 1x Dodge (Kick [1])	150
4x Linemen		240
2x Rerolls, Apo		150
		1170

The extra skill pack for pro elves isn’t the best, but they do make quite good use of the stacking pack, to stack dodge/diving tackle on the blitzers and make them excellent ball harrassment pieces.

2x Blitzers	2x Dodge/Diving Tackle	230
3x Catchers	1x Dodge, 1x Wrestle, 1x Block	400
8x Linemen		240
3x Rerolls		150
		1170

The loss of the apo hurts quite a bit, but I’ve gone up to 13 men on this roster to compensate for it.

Vampires

Now, the new kid on the block (ignoring gnomes) is the vampire team, and in not wanting to underpower the new team for potentially a year of events (assuming that was their rationale) they’ve given them a bit too much in my opinion. 8 skills with the potential for two stacks is very strong, and the standard build of 5 vampires takes good advantage of it. For the vanilla however, 6 vampires seems to be the best with my limited experience of them. Though, as with all things on this analysis, happy to have a chat with you about this in any sort of discord server, so please reach out if you’re interested in any of this.

2x Blitzers	1x Block, 1x Frenzy (Strip Ball[1])	220
2x Throwers	1x Block, 1x Leader	220
2x Runners	2x Dodge	200
7x Thralls	1x Wrestle, 1x Kick (Block [2])	280
4x Rerolls		240
		1160

1x Blitzers	1x Block/Frenzy	220
2x Throwers	1x Block/Dodge, 1x Leader	220
2x Runners	2x Dodge	200
7x Thralls		280
4x Rerolls		240
		1160

Tier 3 Conclusion

And that concludes tier 3. Interestingly, all of these seem really quite viable, with necro, vampires, and khemri getting everything they want, and humans, pro and high elves being pretty close behind. This speaks to the strengths of this particular ruleset, and I expect the data from this event to show more TO’s that gradual TV and skills increase with a lot of options is the way forward for BB2020.

Vampires being one of the more swingy teams, they’re a lot harder to justify for a consistent team, but maybe some vampire specialists will be interested to play the new ones at the national level.

Tier 4

Chaos Pact

Onto the more undesirable races, starting with chaos pact (renegades in new money). They have a couple options for star players but if they’re trying to go more down the line normal their spartan pack is alright.

1x Rat Ogre	1x Block	150
1x Troll	1x Guard	115
1x Ogre	1x Block	140
1x Dark Elf	1x Dodge	75
1x Orc		50
1x Skaven	1x Wrestle	50
6x Linemen	2x Block	300
1x Goblin		40
3x Rerolls, 1x Apo		260
		1180

This is alright, Pact still have their downside of being Pact but it’s probably the best roster you’ll make for them in this ruleset. They have a couple of options for stars, I like the look of Bilerot for the extra st5 guy but splashing a little bit more cash for Borak is also decent.

1x Rat Ogre	1x Block	150
1x Troll		115
1x Ogre	1x Block	140
1x Dark Elf	1x Dodge	75
1x Thrower	1x Leader	75
1x Orc		50
1x Skaven	1x Wrestle	50
4x Linemen		200
1x Bilerot Vomitflesh	2x Star Player Tax	180
2x Rerolls		260
		1175

It’s still pact, despite the slight buff of Bilerot. They’re ultimately too swingy to rely on in a team environment, in my opinion.

Khorne

Moving on, khorne. They have a couple of good builds here, my favourite is the vanilla one where you can fit in a 13th man – super helpful when a team explodes as much as khorne does. The obvious weakness here is the 2 rerolls, but when hitting almost always with block you probably won’t need them that much for blocking and can save them for the important things.

1x Bloodspawn	1x Block	160
4x Bloodseekers	4x Block (Guard [1])	440
3x Khorngors	2x Guard, 1x Sure Hands	210
5x Linemen		250
2x Rerolls		120
		1180

A different angle on khorne is to drop the spawn and go with the stack pack to make a couple of very good seekers and make the team a bit more well rounded on the whole. You’re sacrificing a bit of strength to double your guard amount, which changes your matchup chart slightly – in a way that is positive overall, considering some of the powerhouse teams in this ruleset (skaven, underworld).

4x Bloodseekers	2x Block/Guard, 2x Block	440
3x Khorngors	2x Guard	210
6x Linemen		250
3x Rerolls, 1x Apo		230
		1180

Old World Alliance

Old World Alliance are a curious team due to the number of options available to them, and I think they work best as a star caddy team. The annoying part of them star caddying is that most of the good stars available to them are around the 210k-250k mark, making them the wrong side of the ideal star tax boundary. This vanilla version is more fouling oriented, their guard density as well as access to a dirty player mean they can set up big fouls on good players reasonably consistently.

1x Ogre	1x Guard	150
1x Human Blitzer	1x Tackle (Guard [1], Mighty Blow [1])	90
1x Human Catcher	1x Block	65
1x Human Thrower	1x Leader	80
1x Troll Slayer	1x Guard	95
1x Dwarf Blitzer	1x Guard	80
2x Dwarf Blocker	2x Guard	150
4x Linemen	1x Dirty Player	200
1x Halfling		30
2x Rerolls, 1x Bribe		240
		1180

Their star build has a few good options to choose from: Ivar Eriksson, Karla Von Kill, Skrorg Snowpelt, the Mighty Zug, and Grombrindal the White Dwarf. Ivar plays more aggressively on defence, and is also a good pick for coverage due to his tackle and guard. Karla is probably the weakest of these, bringing not much more to the team than Ivar – mostly trading guard and tackle and a really good special skill for dodge. Skrorg is good for some damage output and more strength to back up your guards and your ogre. Mighty Zug does much the same thing, there isn’t a lot of difference between the two. Grombrindal is the most interesting of these, allowing you a tackle mighty blow hit most turns, and his other options are all quite good for OWA too. My personal pick is Ivar, but I like all of them.

1x Ogre	1x Guard	150
1x Human Blitzer	1x Tackle (Guard [1], Mighty Blow [1])	90
1x Human Catcher	1x Block	65
1x Human Thrower	1x Leader	80
1x Dwarf Blitzer	1x Guard	80
1x Dwarf Blocker	1x Guard	75
5x Linemen		250
1x Ivar Eriksson	3x Star Player Tax	245
2x Rerolls		140
		1175

Slann

Slann conclude the tier, and the only viable pick in this tier. I like the more “Kfoged” style of playing them, heavy on catchers and rerolls, drop the krox. This particular build makes really good use of the Athena pack, due to slann starting with basically no good skills.

4x Catchers	1x Guard, 3x Dodge	320
9x Linemen	2x Wrestle, 1x Strip Ball, 1x Block	540
5x Rerolls, 1x Apo		300
		1160

The Athena pack just gives them +1 skill, I’ve gone for an extra wrestle here. The other packs seem a bit pointless with them not really having any good stars, not needing the cash, and not making good use of the stack.

4x Catchers	1x Guard, 3x Dodge	320
9x Linemen	3x Wrestle, 1x Strip Ball, 1x Block	540
5x Rerolls, 1x Apo		300
		1160

Tier 4 Conclusion

To conclude tier 4, slann and khorne are the stronger picks here, with slann having the edge by quite a bit.

Tier 5

Black Orcs

Now time for the bottom of the barrel picks, the absolute undesirables. Black orcs, though hurt by the recent guard nerf, are still reasonable. Turning +5 fouls into +3 or +4 fouls is very much not the end of the world, and I quite like some of the builds here.

1x Troll	1x Block	115
6x Black Orcs	2x Block, 4x Guard (Tackle [1])	540
7x Goblins	1x Dirty Player	315
2x Rerolls, 2x Bribes		220
		1190

This has the potential to deal a lot of damage with 3d mighty blow block blitzes and large fouls to back it up, but black orcs are held back by their speed and inherent lack of agency in winning games when compared to a lot of the stronger teams.

In terms of packs, the cash pack is terrible and unusable, they have no good and cheap stars, and the extra skill seems pointless as it can’t go on a black orc. Maybe sure hands on another goblin if you’re desperate. The one I’d consider is the stack pack to get mighty blow and block on one black orc for slightly more consistent blitzing, but even then it feels like a bit of a waste of a squad point.

1x Troll	1x Block	115
6x Black Orcs	1x Block/Mighty Blow, 1x Block, 4x Guard (Tackle [1])	540
7x Goblins		315
2x Rerolls, 2x Bribes		220
		1190

Chaos

Chaos actually build decently well into this pack, or as well as chaos can. The vanilla gives them a decent amount of bashing and control power, but this is another team I’d be surprised to see any of in the actual eurobowl.

1x Ogre	1x Block	140
4x Warriors	4x Block (Guard [2])	400
7x Beastmen	2x Wrestle, 1x Guard, 1x Sure Hands	420
3x Rerolls, 1x Apo		230
		1190

They make good use of a couple of the packs, stacking seems good to get a few block guard warriors or maybe some block mighty blow, but the one I like the most is the extra skill as they have basically no useful base skills, it’s just a skill limit of 3 for them.

1x Ogre	1x Block	140
4x Warriors	2x Block 2x Guard	400
7x Beastmen	3x Wrestle, 1x Guard, 1x Sure Hands	420
3x Rerolls, 1x Apo		230
		1190

Imperial Nobility

Nobility, one of my favourite teams, actually gets a lot of what they want in this pack. 1190 is enough for a full complement of the good positionals, a slightly deep bench, and 3 rerolls. The second blitzer skill is a little variable, I’ve put frenzy down here to take full use of their large amount of guard and stand firm, but dodge or tackle are both very good options.

1x Ogre	1x Block	140
2x Blitzers	1x Dodge, 1x Frenzy	210
4x Bodyguards	4x Guard	360
6x Linemen	1x Wrestle, 1x Dirty Player	270
3x Rerolls		210
		1190

The only one of the packs that nobility will be considering is the stack pack, to get a dodge sidestep blitzer or maybe a dodge frenzy blitzer. You can drop the dirty player lino to stack on both blitzers, but I think the lino is pretty important for some good damage output on any strong players that go down.

1x Ogre	1x Guard	140
2x Blitzers	1x Dodge, 1x Dodge/Frenzy	210
4x Bodyguards	4x Guard	360
6x Linemen	1x Dirty Player	270
3x Rerolls		210
		1190

Nurgle

Last and very much least, Nurgle. Sometimes with Nurgle they are a little bit redeemed by having far more skills and TV than other teams but this is not the case in this rule set that is so generous to so many teams. They have an alright build for vanilla, where you can get in all of the positionals and two whole rerolls!

1x Beast	1x Stand Firm	140
4x Bloaters	2x Block, 2x Guard	460
4x Pestigors	2x Block, 1x Wrestle, 1x Sure Hands	300
4x Rotters	1x Dirty Player	140
2x Rerolls		140
		1180

Similarly to chaos, they like the stack pack and the extra skill pack, and are both very underwhelming. The extra skill swaps the sure hands for leader, and a block to a wrestle. Both very similar rosters, both not very good.

1x Beast	1x Stand Firm (Guard [1])	140
4x Bloaters	2x Block, 2x Guard	460
4x Pestigors	1x Block, 2x Wrestle, 1x Leader	300
4x Rotters	1x Dirty Player	140
2x Rerolls		140
		1180

Concluding thoughts

At first glance, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this Eurobowl’s rule set. It overcomplicates things in a way that makes things more confusing for team building and not necessarily better balancing. I still dislike the pack system, and I would rather not see it going forwards into the next Eurobowls, but then again I haven’t played any team tournaments with the ruleset yet. 

So, in terms of playing tournaments with the ruleset, I’ll make some suggestions for 8 and 4 player teams Eurobowl itself. The first combination I looked at was just trying to get all of the best teams into one squad and not really caring for squad points, and I ended up on this combination.

My Eurobowl Eight

Dark Elves (Spartan)

Lizardmen (Spartan)

Undead (Spartan)

Underworld Denizens (Ares, Glart Smashrip)

Amazons (Athena)

Orcs (Spartan)

Necromantic Horror (Hermes)

Skaven (Athena)

As you can see, this only used 7 of the squad points but there isn’t really anywhere better for them to go. All of the spartan teams are better than a different team using a one point squad pack, with the only exception maybe being vampires with the Artemis pack. Vampires are still too swingy in terms of injuries and hypno gazes working and all the other dice they roll to be a good team for Eurobowl, as they struggle to lock down draws a lot of the time - usually massive wins or losses where they suffer a lot of casualties.

A similar tune for the Europen squads, where the same good teams remain good.

My Europen Four

Dark Elves (Spartan)

Underworld Denizens (Spartan)

Amazons (Athena)

Necromantic Horror (Hermes)

These could really be any combination of the 8 above teams, as any of those would make a very good squad.

This concludes my thoughts on the Eurobowl Ruleset and the teams that are good, and if you would like to see the full complement of rosters that I created (at least one for each pack for each team, bar the stunties) the link is here. Eurobowl Rosters Final. Let me know via discord or your medium of choice your thoughts on these, always happy to listen to criticisms/explain a bit more of my thought process. Thanks for reading!