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ALBION TEAMS

Player Pics


Player Icons
Pixies

Woad Beserker

Fen Guard

Fen Beast

Famous Teams
Knotinthem Forest, Shuffling Woodsday, Ashton Villains - First appeared in 1st Edition Death Zone.
Albion Wanderers - First Appeared in 2nd edition

Background
Albion is a small island to the north of The Old World, just off the coast of Norsca. The island is cloaked in a perpetual fog and it is said that it rains there every day of the year. The landscape is covered in marshes and fens, and mystical stone circles are scattered throughout the lands. The main inhabitants of the island are barbaric woad-wearing humans tribes led by Truthsayers. Though Fen Beasts, Treemen, Pixies, Giants and Fimir are also known to inhabit these lands.

Bloodbowl is one of only two sport played by the human inhabitants of Albion, the other involved an inflated Squig corpse being kicked around a muddy field until the squig ends up in a net.

The first Bloodbowl teams of Albion were Bretonnian teams during the Bretonnian and Tilean occupancy of the island. The teams were made up of Peasants, Squires and Knights, a far cry from the current Albion teams. They were renowned for their honour on the pitch, very rarely fouling and rarely fielding a Big Guy. The most famous of all teams of that era were Knotinthem Forest, though they never achieved any glory worthy of mention.

After the Bretonnian and Tilean forces left Albion the local inhabitants took to the fields of the now abandoned great stadiums that were erected in that period and started to play their own unique brand of Bloodbowl. Truthsayers took on the role of team coaches and apothecaries. Their magical hold over Pixies combines with the raw power of the Woad Beserkers and Fen Guard gives them a powerful team unlike any other to grace the sport. Not to mention the huge Fen Beasts they summon from the earth, controlled by the Truthsayers magical abilities.

Albion team's main focus is on brute strength, invariably fielding a Fen Beasts at the heart of their line of scrimmage. Finesse and ball skills has never been an integral part of the Albion playing style and only the Pixies really have any inclination to go for the ball at all.

Rationale
Albion teams were first introduced in Bloodbowl 1st edition Deathzone, however they were very different from the Ablion team posted here. Albion teams then were typically made up of Knights and Peasants and were based upon what GW would later call Bretonnia. The fluff mentions 3 teams (as above) and describes them as defensive teams that often have Treemen in their roster.

I couldn't just make the team in line with the 1st ed Deathzone because that roster is too similar too the fairly well established unofficial Bretonnian roster. So I turned to the Warhammer fluff for Albion to design the roster.

There was a Warhammer campaign played out in Albion with rules and fluff appearing in White Dwarf monthly, and I have based the players on the local inhabitants of the island of Albion, and made reference to the old Bretonnian teams that used to play there in my fluff. This fits quite nicely as Bretonnia was one of the main armies involved in the Warhammer campaign based in Albion and it also fits nicely with the 1st edition Deathzone fluff too. It explains how the new Albion teams learned the game, where they got their equipment and stadiums.

I kept the Treemen as one of the optional Big Guys in the team, as they were in 1st ed Death Zone and also feature in Albion teams Bloodbowl fluff already, and I also added the Fen Beast. The Fen Beast is the most commonly referred to monster in Albion, and is a staple of all their fluff. The Fen Guards are the local warriors, guarding over the marshes surrounding their homes. Woad Beserkers are basically barbarians, they wear little to no clothes and also featured in the Warhammer campaign set in Albion. Woad is a dye they use to tattoo their skin with Celtic style symbols, in earlier iterations of the rules this would have translated as tattoos which in today's edition translates as Thick Skull. Pixies are local creatures that the druids (Truthsayers) have a strange control over. Because of the very high average St of this team, providing them with standard human linemen did not seem right, especially when all the men on the island are meant to have the proportions of Barbarians. So the only local lineman they could have was the pixies. The team will function in a similar way to Lizardmen, with fast Stunty Linemen and powerful Blockers. The linemen are weaker than Skinks and slower, but dodge on a 2+ instead of 3+ and the team also have the benefit of Throw Team Mate which Lizardmen do not. The barbarians both have lower Av than Saurus, but they come with starting skills which should stop them being too vulnerable.

Season 2 Changes
The team is performing fine after 1 year, just as I would expect 258 games and a win percentage of 54.07% which is the top end of tier 1. This is a little higher than it should have been though as there were numerous teams that were using the Treeman and Fen Beat in the team at the same time, which is illegal, and why I have had to make the change I have which is to allow them access to only 1 Big Guy. The Fen Beast.

Season 3
No changes. The race is performing fine now it only has the option of 1 big guy there is no longer the chance of the team having too many big guys on the pitch in error. The team has played 246 games so far since the previous season with a win percentage of 53.46. This still keeps them in tier 1 though these stats are almost entirely at low TV which is where Albion will thrive. As the team faces higher TV teams they will struggle. So they would otherwise find them self in a tier 1.5 bracket, or possibly even lower. There is some data to support they get significantly worse the higher the TV games they play in, but the number of games played with this race in that range is limited. The team has been locked in now, I am comfortable with the roster and how it is performing.

Team design, background and rationale by Garion
Player Pics are drawn by Knut_Rockie and coloured by Garion
Player icons by Cowhead and Whatball