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Ethereal Teams

Player Pics


Player Icons
Ghost

Wraith

Cairn Wraith

Banshee


Famous Teams
Frozen Phantoms, first mentioned in 2nd edition stars book.
Forlorn Phantoms, first mentioned in Spike! Journal #4, 2018

Background
The first and only Ethereal team for many years was the Frozen Phantoms. They played one game vs The White Bay Arrows; a Dark Elf team, held in their home stadium, simply called The Cave. The problem was the Phantoms couldn’t pick the ball up and their head coach cast a spell on the Dark Elf team turning them ethereal too. Some believe the game is still going on today though The Cave soon emptied of its 90,000 fans so no one can be sure.

It was years before Ethereal teams would make their comeback. Under the guidance of Grogaldr a powerful Necromancer who had convinced Wraiths and Banshees to join forces with Spirint Hosts to make an ethereal team. Only the Wraiths and Banshees have the ability to turn corporeal and incorporeal at will, giving the ghosts the much needed ball handling skills they always lacked.

Even with the addition of the Wraiths and Banshees - Ethereal teams were still composed mostly of incorporeal players on the pitch so the Blood Bowl governing body still refused to let them play. Grogladr had to enchant the opposing teams gauntlets pre game so the opposition could beat the ectoplasm out of the spirit hosts. With this the NAF rule the Grogaldr's team could play. Now Ethereal teams haunt leagues throughout the Old World.

Rationale
First of all the reason for this teams existence in this league is Ethereal team were mentioned in the 2nd edition rule book. Also Spirits and Banshees are mentioned in Blood Bowl Catalogue 2003 and had models.

Throughout all the teams the ability to turn Ethereal is represented by having the Leap and Very Long Legs skill. Those skills represent the player’s ability to turn invisible and move through any object. Because of this it became clear we were working on a Undead version of Slann.

Spirit Hosts – are your basic ghosts, in 3rd edition warhammer they were just called ghosts but in more recent vampire counts rules they have become known as spirit hosts so I elected to use this name as it is up to date. Their Ethereal ability as mentioned above is represented as Leap + VLL, Foul Appearance was added to represent the fear they cause in their opponents. Regenerate was added because they regenerate. As this team is undead and has a Necromancer when an opponent player is killed they will be raised as a ghost or spirit host as they are now called. This stat line later changed to no hands, ag5 titchy which feels a better fit thematically and strategically.

Wraiths – have been around since 2nd edition warhammer and now feature in the vampire counts army again. They basically look like the archetypal Death image - a floating cloak, hooded figure with a skeletal hand. They are basically the team’s Blitzers, they gain the skill Stab which represents the “Touch” ability of a wraith. They also gain Disturbing Presence because they cause terror not just fear.

Syreens – were created as part of the semi official Zombie Pirates army. They have the ability to turn ethereal, hypnotic gaze, foul appearance and disturbing presence. All of which is described in detail in the zombie pirates army book which you can download from the games workshop achives. Because their abilities were described so clearly in the book it made the skill selection straight forward.

Banshees – are the weakest but most mobile and agile of the ethereal beings. On top of sharing all the abilities of the Spirit Hosts they also have their scream ability. When translated to bloodbowl skills this is best represented as Hypnotic Gaze.

Season 2 (2020 Edition) Changes
Although this roster was performing as I wanted in CRP through to the end of 2016 edition I had to change things substantially in line with my design principles used throughout Secret League. This is because Wraiths gained an official player and also due to the changes to leap in the edition and the buffs to Foul Appearance and the potential negative play experience associated with mass FA.

So first I removed FA from the linemen, I also decided to change their name from Spirit Hosts to Ghosts. I prefer the name Ghost and it is more in keeping with Old World Warhammer, Spirit Hosts are too synonymous with Age of Sigmar now. The second change was to remove Foul Appearance from Ghosts and reduce the Ag to 2+ in line with the new rules, these nerfs meant that the cost of the player is reduced to 40k, which makes the roster more affordable/easy to manage and also gives the team cheaper foulers, so in terms of team development it is a potentially a buff, though keeping Ghosts on the pitch will be a lot harder now, as they will likely be Blitz targets most turns due to their lack of Fa and low Av. So they have lost some abilities but gained some potential and affordability.

Wraiths - I split the Wraiths into two positions. The reason I have changed their name is because of how the official design of Wraith has been implemented i.e. a bedsheet style ghost which of the 3 types of Wraith in Warhammer is the Wraithwisp, though I have decided to leave their name as Wraith just to match up with the official Necromantic roster. The other two possible names are are Hex Wraith which is a Cairn Wraith on horseback, and Cairn Wraith which is the Wraith most similar to Death in appearance - a black cloak with skeletal death like form whose touch drains the life of the those they touch. So I updated the Wraith from the 2016 edition version of this roster, changing their name to Cairn Wraith, and changing their Leap + Very Long Legs ability to Side Step, in line with how official Wraiths were designed; side step representing their shifting ghostly form. Unlike Cairn Wraiths I gave them hands to give the team more ball carriers, and because they have hands with which they do their death touch ability (stab).

Finally I updated the Banshee in line with the new star player banshee. I gave them dodge and shadowing, and removed Hypnotic Gaze, Disturbing Presence is meant to represent the players scream ability and Hypnotic Gaze is too powerful in this edition currently. Dodge more than makes up for this loss though.

Overall the design changes have moved this team away from their undead slann style game play, though they still have a lot of cage breaking ability in other ways, Side Step on 4 players and shadowing on 2 means Ethereal teams will stick to their opposition like glue when they want to put pressure on. Plus their linemen will still have good cage breaking ability. The team also have more core skills now, Dodge x2 and Block x2, plus better fouling potentially, but they only have 4 players that can carry the ball. Overall I see these changes as buffing the team over their previous version.

Team design by Garion and Calthor
Players pics drawn by Knut Rockie and coloured by Garion
Player Icons by Kingmad