Blood Bowl – DeathZone Fantasy Football Stock

We talked about the initial six teams of Blood Bowls 3rd edition and how those are represented in my collection, now it is time to go further and look what DeathZone brings to the table (top).DeathZone was the expansion for Blood Bowl, adding more complexity and options to the core game. And it did this for the first time in 1987, as well as for the 3rd edition in 1994 - this is the one we're talking about. Funnily enough, the '94 release even picks up some of the initial designs, for example spotting a huge minotaur on the cover. The most current edition of Blood Bowl got its DeathZone as well.

Just like the core game we get another batch of six different teams, and a lot - honestly, a looot - of new star players. Unlike the initial batch we do not get 3 "good" and 3 "evil" teams, but a variety of rather special rosters.

The scope for these teams is the same as in the other article to fill up a full roster of around 16 miniatures for each team. Including the Star Players, Big Guys and Secret Weapons were possible. All the Big Guy and Secret Weapon Starplayers will fill in the role of a regular Big Guy / Secret Weapon, depending on the treasury / team score, if needed. As Blood Bowl is a miniature board game but very similar to a skirmish with that amount of miniatures, I tried to gather as much different poses as possible and went on to swap/trade with other hobbyists to reduce duplicates as much as possible. Where the roster gives options to max out on the special positions, I try to do so in a reasonable way and fill up with linemen (usually to full up to the full roster or have a backbone for the starting rosters).

Goblin Teams

The goblin team is one of two quite special ones - the stunties! and it completely consists out of one choice - goblins. It highly depends on the star players, secret weapons and big guys. The goblin team came as a supplement for the Orc team, as you could hire up to four goblins for your team, but only this way, not the other way around. And with this in mind, I see the Orcs and Goblins as one large team, that I can play as two, if I want to. And with that in mind, the four goblin star players, the option to use Rippa Bolgrot either as a star player or troll, a bunch of 11 goblin players would be enough to check off this team.

• 0-16 Goblins
• Starplayers: Fungus the Loon, Scrappa Sorehead, Bomber Dribblesnot, Nobbla Blackwart

Halfling Teams

The second stunty team and along with the Wood Elves the only "good" guys in DeathZone are the Halflings. But unlike the Goblins, they are not an allied option for Humans or Wood Elves, and their team consists out of only Halflings with the option to add treemen as big guys. And you might wonder about the halfling cook from the hot pot. With DeathZone various upgrades to the teams, for example a Wizard, but Halflings can't take but have an optional Master Chef instead.

I picked this team up during a made-to-order run by Games Workshop, and got the tree men 2nd hand. Back in the day Deeproot Strongbranch did not have a sculp of his own and they offered the regular Warhammer Fantasy Battles miniature from the Wood Elves range.

• 0-16 Halflings
• Starplayers: Halfling Master Chef, two Big Guy Treeman / Deeproot Strongbranch

Wood Elf Teams

The Wood Elf Team was what I thought would be the last team that I buy to complete this collection, but another one came across - but more on that further below. The Wood Elves are similar to the High Elf team but a bit quicker and less armoured. The tree men from the Halflings might be used with this roster as well, but beyond that I would still be open to add another catcher and second thrower to the collection, while not necessary needed with their regular linemen having agility 4 and being capable to throw and catch. And yes, they only had two poses for their linemen.

• 0-12 Linemen
• 0-4 Catcher
• 0-2 Throwers
• 0-2 Wardancers
• Starplayers: Jordell Freshbreeze

Chaos Teams

Regarding the Chaos Team, this one is already done and painted as the Mordheim Marauders. You can read the entire project on here. This team was maxed out as well, with four Chaos Warriors and the available star players as along with the mutation upgrade blisters. Chaos Teams just like the Skaven have the options to not just add skills but mutations during their players' development.

• 0-12 Beastmen
• 0-4 Chaos Warriors
• Mutants: Claw and Foul Appearance, Tentacles, Extra Arms
• Star Players: Lord Borak, Grashnak Blackhoof

Chaos Dwarf Team

The Chaos Dwarf Team is a great one, with some entertaining sides. It was released a few times as made-to-order but in a combination that made it barely impossible to upgrade / complete the roster, without being quite expensive and I managed to pick up a full team on facebook market place, including the bull centaurs and even the secret weapon! The regular bull centaurs and Zzharg Madeye never got actual Blood Bowl miniatures and you got the regular Warhammer Fantasy Sculpts for them.

I managed to swap some of the Hobgoblins on a bring & buy, for more variation. The update of the Chaos Dwarf Team Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats is so well done, that it moved this project up in priority!

• 0-12 Hobgoblins
• 0-6 Chaos Dwarf Blockers
• 0-2 Bull Centaurs -> added with 4th edition
• Starplayers: Hthark the Unstoppable, Zzharg Madeye

Undead Teams

My undead team is probably one of the larger rosters and exceeds the 16 miniatures quite a bit, due to several reasons. The roster is the largest in terms of options, as you have five different positions to choose from and that is without the star players. In 4th / LRB there was a variant of the Undead Team, called the Necromantic team and similar to what I did with the Orcs and Goblins, I went to add two Flesh Golems and two Werewolves to be able to play them that way as well. I did so by using classic and more recent Specialist Games sculpts, which is an exception in this collection, and the iconic classic Coounth Luthor von Drakenborg.

• 0-12 Skeletons
• 0-8 Zombies -> 0-12 in 4th edition
• 0-4 Ghouls
• 0-2 Whights -> 0-4 in 4th edition
• 0-2 Mummy
• Starplayer: Count Luthor von Drakenborg (sometimes Drakenburg), Skeleton with Chainsaw, Frank 'n' Stein, Wilhelm Chaney, Werewolf, Flesh Golem

So these were the six teams from DeathZone - but wait! There is more! Via the Troll Magazine a 13th team was added to the edition, the Norse!

Norse Teams

I got these second hand and nearly complete, for a sensible offer and thus the Norse got added to the collection as well. All of the special positions are filled, yet they are missing a Star Player sculpt of their own (yet have access to others like Morg n' Thorg), but have options for a Big Guy through the LRB. Will see if I can add some fitting Yeti, Ogre or something viking like from the era fitting the aesthetics of the sculpts.

• 0-12 Linemen
• 0-2 Catchers
• 0-2 Throwers
• 0-4 Blitzers
• Starplayer: None, but we might add a big guy

Lizardmen Teams

And the final addition, as it still carries the design language of the 4th edition in a way as the Lizardmen! This was a happy coincedence, as I thought, well let me post that I would be open for a team and if I get a reasonable offer, I will buy it. And I got a reasonable offer of a complete team - even covering the Kroxigor and lots of different sculpts, so everything that I needed without much hassle at a reasonable quote. Only missing Sillibilli, and what I didn't know at that time that he is one of the rather rare star player sculpts and quite worth a couple of bucks, more than I intend to spend. I might kitbash him from a regular Saurus with bits from the Templar Guards or something.

• 0-12 Skinks
• 0-6 Saurus
• Starplayers: Sillibilli (missing), Big Guy Kroxigor

This adds up to 14 teams in total, enought to do two divisions of 6 with wild cards and certainly enough to host some invitational events for hobbyists without teams of their own.

While the Living Rule Book added further teams in their development, I cut it off here with some added options from the first LRB if you want to, so we're not going to see the Amazons (LRB 2.0), regular Elf Team, Khemri, Nurgle (not in this classic Blood Bowl run, but in a different way) (all LRB 3.0), Vampire, Ogre (LRB 4.0), as I want to keep balancing within 3rd/4th edition as much as possible.But in case any of you have spares of these, please let me know:

• Dark Elf Thrower (1x)
• Dark Elf Blitzers (2x)
• High Elf Lion Warriors (1x, Pose #2)
• Human Catcher (1x, Pose #1)
• Wood Elf Thrower (1x)
• Wood Elf Catcher (1x, Pose 1)
• Sillibilli