Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs

Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs Overview: #

Bull Centaurs are one of the best players in the game of Blood Bowl, let alone on the Chaos Dwarf team. This is reflected by their high price, they are the most expensive non Loner player or 0-1 positional player in the game. They are faster than their average movement suggests thanks to starting with both Sprint and Sure Feet, they are strong and highly armoured and being Dwarfish they also have Thick Skull, so getting them from the pitch is no easy task. With General and Strength skill access they can become very formidable players. Apart from the high cost their only other downsides are the below average agility and the lack of core starting skills. Thankfully the higher cost is offset by the rest of the team being fairly cheap.

Another thing that sets Bull Centaurs apart from other players is that they are perhaps the single biggest player that coaches will disagree on how they should be utilised on a team. It basically all boils down to if you feel you should use them as your main ball carrier or not. There are valid arguments both ways so I will try and outline both and let you make up your own mind how to use yours.

The Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaur Ball Carrier Conundrum: #

The Argument for it: #

There are two main reasons for using a Bull Centaur as your ball carrier and that is that they are your fastest players and also they are strong. If they are sat in the middle of a cage they are going to be very tough for the other team to get the ball off them. Their higher strength also means they can blitz away easier if the situation calls for it. Also those times that the ball carrier needs to make those go for its to get out of trouble, they come with the in built skill reroll to aid that.

These attributes mean Chaos Dwarfs are the only other team apart from Vampires that are likely to choose a ST4 rookie player to be their main ball carrier. From time to time you may see Saurus or Black Orcs used but that is usually to try and feed them SPP rather than because they feel they are best suited to the role. Due to the rarity of such players, many coaches are often not that prepared to deal with them which can be to your advantage.

Development of Bull Centaurs can also be on the slow side if all you do is bash with them, so using them as your offensive ball carrier will get them more touchdowns and aid in generating SPP and more skills for them.

The Argument against it: #

While there are some good points for developing them as your ball carrier I think there are more reasons against it. There is a fair amount of overlap in skills anyway it really boils down to if you are going to give them Sure Hands or not.

Most teams will look to use their most agile players as the ball carrier as they are better at ball handling and moving around. For Chaos Dwarfs that would be a Hobgoblin, sure when you factor in a Bull Centaur with break tackle can dodge easier and they are a bit faster there isn’t a lot in it. Hobgoblins are also weaker but that usually doesn’t matter if you are successful in avoiding your ball carrier taking hits (which you should be!) When they are nice and snug inside a cage the strength of your ball carrier doesn’t matter if they can’t hit him. Some players can use Leap to get into the cage easily but they will then often be facing a lot of hits from Guard, Block and Tackle players and then perhaps a foul after for good measure. You somewhat make your Hobgoblins a bit redundant taking the ball carrying role away and leave them mostly for fouling and getting the odd assist. Hobgoblins also only have general skill access. Their skill choices are limited and Sure Hands is usually one they will consider, though you wouldn’t take it if you have it on your Bull Centaurs. The Bull Centaurs on the other hand have a lot of great skills to pick from that you are passing up if you take Sure Hands.

However the advantage of using a Hobgoblin instead of a Bull Centaur for your ball carrier is that then frees up your Bull Centaur to do other things. Another reason other teams don’t tend to use their ST4 players to carry the ball is that they are better at hitting and protecting another player who is carrying the ball. Compared to most other bash orientated teams Chaos Dwarfs are one of the weakest ST wise, so hiding one of your two possible ST4 players inside a cage doesn’t help in the hitting game. If one of your Bull Centaurs is inside the cage, that means you have  a Hobgoblin outside the cage to do the job of protection and helping advance the cage. There isn’t much between using either of them as the ball carrier, but a Bull Centaur is by far more useful on the outside of a cage. It is harder for the other team to deal with a ST player on defence than a ST3 one, especially when the weaker player is also only AV7! So not only would a Hobgoblin be easier for them to hit, they can’t get easy access to Guard and other strength skills but they are much easier for the other team to injure and start to get a numerical advantage. If the other team is already stronger, giving up the numbers to them will make life harder for you.

Bull Centaurs are one of the best blitzing players in the game with their movement and strength, especially when they get more developed. Taking skills to aid them in being a ball carrier means you are sacrificing a skill that would make them even better Blitzers. I  don’t understand why someone would do this when you have an alternative player who can carry the ball with just as much success. When you also consider that they don’t start with any core skills you are limiting the effectiveness of your blitzing opportunities. The first two skills are generally going to be Block and Break Tackle (in either order) and the more skills a player has the longer it takes to get the next one, delaying the blitzing skills in favour of Sure Hands is something you should consider.

They can also become a SPP hog if you go this route as you will rarely do much scoring with anyone else. If you are also doing most of your blitzing with them too, then other players may suffer from slow development instead. A team built with Bull Centaurs primarily carrying the ball may struggle to ever get any skills on their Hobgoblins making them juicy targets on the pitch for the opposition.

Even if you don’t build them towards being your primary ball carrier, they can still do the job on any given drive if you feel tactically it is to your advantage. The main reasons to take Sure Hands would be that it helps counter their low agility when it comes to picking the ball up, saving your pricey rerolls for the rest of the drive. It also negates Strip Ball, though it isn’t a commonly taken skill these days apart from Wood Elves and a couple of other races. Depending on the teams in your league this may not be a concern at all. A Bull Centaur can often pick up touchdowns from defensive drives much like other players who blitz the ball carrier of the opposition. If you knock them down and get the ball loose they may your only player in range to attempt a pick up. If they succeed it can then often lead to a touchdown your next turn, or if you don’t you still then have a ST4 player stood next to the ball that they have to deal with.

There will also be offensive drives where you whittle the numbers on the other team down that you may decide to try and do a hand off to the Bull Centaur in order to feed them some SPP to aid their development. This situation will occur far more frequently if you have the Bull Centaurs outside the cage with an extra blocking orientated skill, rather than sitting inside it with a ball handling skill. Even if you get an AG3 Bull Centaur, I don’t think that changes the arguments much as you still would be taking one of your strongest players away from a role they are better suited for than their team mates.

Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaur Blitzer #

• Normal: Break Tackle / Block, Tackle / Mighty Blow / Frenzy / Stand Firm / Strip ball / Grab / Juggernaut
• Doubles: Dodge / Side Step / Diving Tackle
• Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV

Nearly every Bull Centaur will start off with the same two skills on normal rolls regardless of the direction you may be taking them. With low agility and decent movement you may often not be making the best of their abilities if they just get tied up by an opposing Lineman. To counter that you really want to get Break Tackle as one of their first two skills, otherwise they are basically going to be a very expensive Black Orc. Then as a player that is going to be doing hitting, you want to take Block which will also help keep them on their feet, you don’t want your ST4 players on the ground, especially against the other bash teams.

After that you are spoiled for choice and if you develop both Bull Centaurs as Blitzers then you can diversify the two into slightly different roles. If facing lots of Dodge opponents then go for Tackle, opposing ball carriers will often tend to take Dodge if at all possible. Even though all your Chaos Dwarf Blockers come with Tackle, it is good to have it on at least one Bull Centaur too. Mighty Blow will help keep the SPP coming in and also remove opposing players. Frenzy can help clear a path to advance a cage and can somewhat make up for a lack of Tackle / Wrestle. With a reroll you may get six dice on an opposing player using Frenzy. Crowd Surfs are also very useful to get a numerical advantage.

Stand Firm isn’t as good as it once was but you get access to it on normal rolls now. It will help control movement on the pitch, get more blocking opportunities and can help mark opposing ball carriers if you either can’t hit them directly or fail to knock them down after you do hit them. Strip Ball on one can be handy even if you are in a Sure Hands heavy league, though that does make it less desirable. It is also a skill that you could perhaps take on a Hobgoblin if you wanted to take other choices on your Bull Centaurs. Grab can help set up crowd surfs, move opponents next to more of your team mates for blocks and also help clear a path to help advance a cage. Juggernaut can also be a great skill, especially combined with Frenzy, use it to target the opposing teams Wrestle players, or to shove troublesome Fend or Stand Firm opposition out of the way.

For doubles Dodge keeps them upright even more and can provide a reroll when blitzing with Break Tackle. It can also open up more tricky blitz situations that may require two dodges, if you pass the first dodge without using Break Tackle you may decide to make a second dodge in the action and pick a better target than you first aimed for. It loses some effectiveness if your in a Tackle heavy environment as always though. In which case give some thought to Side Step (unless you already have Stand Firm) or even Diving Tackle if you already have Stand Firm and often get next to the opposing ball carrier. It can also make a nice second double skill if you already have Dodge and greater again with Stand Firm on a really well developed player.

For stat increases a +ST is brilliant as you can then use Break Tackle to dodge into a tackle zone on a 2+. It also means you can hit the ST5 monsters on other teams easier and it generally makes it harder for other teams to deal with you. An agility increase is a marginal choice, it does make you better at dodging generally, though makes Break Tackle less desirable and is a bit like having both Block and Wrestle on a player. Generally one dodge is usually enough in an action and Break Tackle gives you an easier target roll for less team value. However an agility increase does open up more ball handling opportunities which can be very useful. If you don’t already have Break Tackle then I would think most coaches would take the agility, if you do then most still do, but I wouldn’t give you a funny look if you passed it up. Extra movement can also be handy, though I wouldn’t pick it as an early skill choice, preferring even a normal skill if that was the only option. Even late in development I may not take it as there aren’t too many times they really need that extra square.

Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaur Ball Carrier: #

• Normal: Break Tackle, Block / Sure Hands, Tackle / Mighty Blow / Juggernaut
• Doubles: Dodge, Catch
• Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV

While I don’t personally agree with this build, it is still a very common way to go with either one or both of your Bull Centaurs. You really need to keep them mobile so it is perhaps best to start with Break Tackle. Block or Sure Hands next depending which you feel is more pressing based on your full roster and the teams you are facing. If you started with less rerolls then Sure Hands is probably more of a priority. After these three skills you choices are much the same as the blitzing role for much the same reasons. Juggernaut may perhaps be a bit more desirable though as when you want to blitz through to score, you can turn a both down result into a pushback to save getting stuck having to attempt more dodges through tackle zones, rather than perhaps one dodge into the open.

For doubles as a ball carrier you Dodge is hard to overlook, on a second double Catch can be useful if you like to hand the ball off to them and also for the occasional bouncing ball and interception attempts. For stat increases +ST isn’t something you can pass up though I feel its an even bigger waste to have a ST5 player sat in a cage. You are probably always going to take an agility increase as you are doing most of your ball handling with them and the extra movement means they are in scoring range from further out.

Killer Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaur: #

• Normal: Block, Mighty Blow, Piling On, Frenzy/ Juggernaut / Tackle
• Doubles: Jump Up
• Stat Increase: +ST

For doubles Jump Up even will let you get more blocks in from being prone, either after you are knocked over or from using Piling On. It may also stop players following up after knocking you down, which then means you can pick a juicier target when you get back up. For stat increases +ST is great but the others are probably less useful and more team value than a normal skill.

Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaur Summary: #

You can probably imagine how powerful a player a Bull Centaur can be and that is something no one argues with. It has been a on going argument as to if they are best built as primary ball carriers or not and it is probably clear I stand on the side of the fence that doesn’t agree with it. If you just look at the blitzing build that I outlined you can see how many useful skills they have available and there may even be one or two that I missed off you could make a case for. Even when faced with all that and the fact their Hobgoblin team mates can carry the ball with success, many coaches still use their Bull Centaurs as their primary ball carriers.

A contentious debate that will run on and on with no right or wrong answer at the end of the day. I’m not debating that it doesn’t work as many teams have had success this way. I just don’t think it is optimal and in some games there are going to be times you wanted that extra strength on the outside of the cage. I just know that if I was the opponent, I would prefer them to be using their Bull Centaur to carry the ball as in my opinion it makes the defence against cage progression much easier.