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Slayers Teams (Karak Kadrin)

Player Pics


Player Icons
Linemen

Slayer Runners

Slayers

Giant Slayers

Doom Seeker


Famous Teams
No Slayer teams are specifically mentioned by name, but in BB Magazine 5 Dwarf Slayers did have their own roster called The Realm of Karak Kadrin (Slayer Keep)

Background
Dwarf teams never used to have slayers in, in fact the first ever Dwarf Slayer in Blood Bowl (Stout Ironfist) started life as a Blitzer and after watching his brethren get slaughtered in a typically brutal match he snapped and went on a frenzied tirade beating the opposing team in to a bloodied pulp. From that moment forth - Dwarf teams adopted Slayers in their teams, both in tribute to Ironfist and because the crowd love nothing more than frenzied killers in their team.

Not long ago Slayer teams started forming. Fans had grown tired of watching Dwarf teams and their boring relentless play style and harked for the days of great entertainers like the Warhammerers and the Giants' famous Blitzer turned Slayer - Ironfist. Dwarf teams started to splinter, and new teams started to form in their place. The Slayers created their own teams in tribute to their legendary player, and other Dwarf factions formed in tribute to the Warhammerers and their engineers, weapons and downright dirty tactics, among others.

Slayers teams at first were made up solely Slayers from the old Dwarf teams. Over time the greatest and most powerful players became known as Giant slayers, a name bestowed upon them in tribute to the famous team - Dwarf Giants, from which Ironfist (the first Slayer) emerged.

Slayer teams played with little care for the ball in their early years, and while their games were brutal they invariably lost which was hard for the proud Dwarfs to stomach and fan attendance began declining. This changed when a Slayer team enlisted the help of Long Drong's Slayers Pirates. Long Drong's runners became an important part of the team, not only taking the role as the team's Runners, but also supplying the team and stadia with barrels of Ale. With huge quantities of Ale available at every game and Slayer teams now winning their games as well - the attendance for Slayer games quickly grew again.

Not content with the carnage they were causing Slayer teams enlisted the aide of Doomseekers in their teams. Whirling their giant axes on chains about them, carving up all opponents that stand before them, they quickly became fan favourites. And though they are short lived they have now become a staple of the Slayer team and embody the ‘better to die fighting than live in the shadows’ attitude of the team.

Rationale
This team was built around the Dwarves positional the Slayer. The team drew its inspiration from the Storm of Chaos campaign that had Slayers as the Dwarf core with Doomseekers.

When building this list I first had to consider which skill to have on all the players, either Dauntless or Frenzy. I ended up going for Dauntless as it is this skill that fits their fluff more. Slayers fluff is all about them taking on bigger, stronger creatures, attacking them without fear and happy to die in battle. Frenzy is also a nice fit as it shows their berserker type nature but it does not fit as well as dauntless.

The linemen are just basic dwarf linemen like in the engineers team, the normal dwarf team has no linemen and just has Longbeards/blockers instead. So the linemen are basically the same but start without Tackle, as they aren't as skilled in the art of blocking as Longbeards. Also I have never been a fan of players starting with Block and Tackle. It makes the team too hard a counter to some opposition.

Next we have Long Drong's famous pirate slayers. They start with Thick Skull and Dauntless. But I also gave them a slightly improved Ag as they are more agile in Warhammer. They also start with Strip Ball, this was selected based on their pirate fluff of raiding and looting. It makes them the team runners which is also well suited to their pirate fluff.

Then we have Giant Slayers, they are your basic Slayers with a St boost. However they lose Block and gain Juggernaut. This was done to represent the fact Giant Slayers are even more crazed than their brethren and that they are desperate to die in battle, happily forgoing the defensive qualities of the block skill. But I didn't want them to be worse blitzers than standard slayers so Juggernaut represents their ability to blitz without fear and shows they are more skilled at it, refusing to accept a both down always aiming to POW an opponent.

Finally the Doomseeker was added, he is your basic Ball and Chain player although uses axes on the end of a chain instead.

Season 2 Changes
Games 326, win percentage 46.78. Which puts the team around tier 1.5. This is as expected so no changes required.

Season 3
502 games played with a win percentage of 46.12% which is very consistent across rule sets (CRP to 2016 edition), and across years of playing. I am fine with the roster performing at this tier 1.5 level. It is where I expected them to be due to the problems associated with too Frenzy, the lower Av and lack of starting ball runners. There is strong chance this roster will be locked in next year.

Season 4 Changes
Year 4 and a win percentage of 48%. Still a consistent score. However we felt the team's character didn't quite feel right, first of all the inclusion of Long Drogs Slayer in the team felt a bit odd. So we changed this to a Slayer Runner, swaping Strip Ball for Sure Hands, and increasing their MA by 1. This gives the team a greater scroing threat and a little better at ball handling at rookie level. They keep their S access though, as this felt fitting for a Slayer team. Further more the Linemen were changed, pushing them away from normal Dwarves to a player representing a lesser slayer. The linemen lose a point of Av but gain Dauntless the skill most representative of the Slayers ability to down bigger foes. These changes should make the team slightly less resilient but slightly better at scoring, and more effective at taking out high St players.

Team design by Garion and Spubbbba.
Team rationale and background by Garion.
Player Pics drawn by Knut_Rockie and coloured by Garion
Icons by Harvesmouse and Garion