Shambling Undead Strategy Guide

Summary

In former times, Undead were considered to be one of the more dangerous bashing teams. These days, there are better teams at doing that; Undead are now primarily a running team, relying on a tight or loose cage to protect the ball until breaking for the endzone - with developed Ghouls and tough, Regenerating players to support them, they are a hard team to overcome, if coached well. At early stages, they generally perform very well, but the slow development of the Zombie and Skeleton players, and lack of access to Strength or Agility skills means they find it harder at higher team ratings.

Strengths

Cheap, regenerating Zombies and Skeletons make perfect line fodder, and their cost offsets the expensive team rerolls when first setting up the team. Mummies are the best Str 5 players in the game, as they don't suffer from negative traits, and can rack up casualties (thanks to Mighty Blow) while being very difficult to bring down themselves, if supported well by Zombies, Skeletons or even the Wights. Ghouls are cheap positional players, and have the valuable Dodge skill from the start, to which they often quickly add Block, much to the consternation of relatively skill-less early teams with no Tacklers. Wights are sturdy blitzers.

Weaknesses

Zombies and Skeletons may be perfect for putting tackle zones on opposing players, the Necromancer in charge of the team caring little if they survive or not, but they can't be relied upon to do much else - the burden of playing the ball falls on the Wights and Ghouls. With no Apothecary or Regenerate to keep them alive, Ghouls tend to have short playing careers.

In-game Tactics

In offence, a Ghoul or Wight picks up the loose ball, and gets into a cage, usually consisting of at least one Mummy, as quickly as possible - the slow Mummies and Zombies mean that it's not a good idea to commit too many of them to the LoS, only to find themselves bypassed as the opposing team outflanks them and runs down the ball retriever; this is especially true versus Elves and Skaven. Ghouls are fairly quick, so Undead can push for a fairly quick TD, in say four or five turns, then pressure the other team for the rest of the half.

In defence, use Zombies and Skeletons to tie up opposing players with one-to-one marking or even two-to-one, if the Mummies or supporting players start to remove opposing players from the field. It doesn't matter if they get hurt - they are cheap to replace, Regenerate half the time, and dead opposing players will add to their ranks as a new Zombie! Wights and Ghouls are typically used to pressure the ball or the intended ball receivers.

Passing is rarely a good idea with Undead - it's a good way of handing the ball to the opposition. If you must, try to keep it to Quick or Short Pass range. If you do run into trouble, make sure you have a Ghoul (or Wight) with Catch or +Ag in range to Hand-off too.

Mummies are very powerful and potentially dominant players - but this means that they must be carefully protected and supported. Opponents will take any opportunity to remove one if it is ever left isolated, so they should always be flanked by supporting Zombies. This is especially important in your initial set-up which should never offer an easy Blitz+Foul on a Mummy. Be wary of Dauntless players, other high ST players, ranks of Guards and - above all - DPs: one moment of luck from these can remove a Mummy and leave your team outpowered and forced to play a running game it would not prefer.

(This is an updated version of the Shambling Undead strategy page of the previous iteration of the game. Credit should go to the original poster, who chose to remain anonymous.)

High TV addendum by Garion

With Undead against high TV bash you need a few things: Guard on all 4 players with S access, Stand Firm on the Mummies to stop them getting pushed away so easily, MB + Tackle on the Wights and a few DP players. Plus of course a few Blodge Ghouls.

Tactics - well its basically the same as any other race. You have 2 options; 1 - try and stop them from scoring and win 1-0 or force them to score quickly and win 2-1.

Inducements should usually be Bribes, Wizard and Babes.

To force a quick score make a screen with a side bias allowing your opponent to run his cage down one side of the pitch, if possible tie up as many other players as possible on the other side of the pitch with zombies, just leaving them 1 on 1. Then use your Mummies, Wights and Ghouls to pressure the ball carrier, don't worry about actually going for the ball, just chip away at the cage and mark the prone players so he has fewer and fewer players to work with to protect his ball carrier, but again let him run the ball down field. You might do a good enough job that you get a shot at the ball carrier, if so take it, if not just keep pushing him to score within 4 turns. Then you just need to use your Wights and Ghouls to get a quick TD, if you succeed then you should win 2-1.

The other way is to keep your opponent from scoring. Basically you are playing a bit like Elves, do everything above, but try and protect the width of the field with a screen so there is nowhere for him to go. If you have a Wizard, the added pressure on your opponent to form loose cages and spread his offence will make them easier to stop, so don't use it too early, the option of using a Wizard is often stronger than its actual use. Where possible blitz the corner of a cage with a Mummy and stick your Mummy on the ball carrier, then swarm the cage with 2 players on each corner so the opponent has to resort to drastic plays to escape.

Basically you just need to be flexible and adapt your tactics to the situation. There is no magic button in Blood Bowl, it's all about reading the situation. And for the most part tactics are the same for every race. Some races are just better at certain aspects of it than others.