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KISLEV TEAMS

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Player Icons
Linemen

Kicker

Wings

Kossar

Werebears


Famous Teams
Kishargo Werebears deserve a mention here, they were a Human team and the first team to field Werebears, and always sounded to me like they were from Kislev. They were first mentioned in 1st edition. There was also Praag Changelings who were first mentioned in 2nd edition stars, Praag being a city in Kislev. Rostov Renegades have been mentioned in 2016 edition.

Background
Kislev, situated between the Empire, Norsca and the Chaos wastes. The forests of the Empire in the south make way for dark birch glades and desolate plains, separated from Norsca by the great Toundra to the North and to the East a great wall of mountains inhabited by Dwarves and Skaven standing between them and the Chaos Wastes.

The Kislevites have endured great hardship throughout their history, defending their homes from the marauding chaos hordes and savage berserkers from the north. Their only respite from these attacks comes when winter envelops their lands. The rivers turn to ice, the lands are scorched by the bitter winds, roaming war-bands and hunters return to their great stone cities and the gates are closed. Few animals can survive the conditions outside the city walls. The land is unforgiving and only the strongest survive in these conditions. To the Kislevites defence, self-reliance and preservation is what their culture is built upon.

Despite all of their hardships they are a proud nation and refuse to leave their home lands. They are steadfast, stubborn, they care not how they are perceived by their more ‘civilised’ neighbours in the Empire, who see them as savages, uneducated and unrefined.

Bloodbowl found its way in to the lands of Kislev quite quickly through the trade routes with the Empire. Their most famous team - Kishargo Werebears established the style of play for the region in the early years of the sport. The team had a reasonable record though never gained many neutral fans. Kishargo Werebears and all Kislev teams from this point became synonymous with their defence orientated style. Two great Werebears formed the fulcrum of their defence with their remaining players focused on frustrating their opposition with defence orientated tactics. All Kislev teams now follow in the footsteps of their most revered team and if a Kislev team wins a game they invariably win 1-0.

Rationale
Designing the Kislev roster was all about designing a team based on their background of a stubborn, unyielding defence orientated nation. Having looked at a number of unofficial rosters for Kislev on the internet and having read through all the official rules for Kislev and any other background material scattered through the many rules books and many editions of WFB I didn’t feel any of the rosters really captured the true defensive nature, or the grit and determination of the Kislevites

Some rosters focused on Jump Up on all or a large number of their players which I thought was interesting as it does represent their nature in the sense that they never lie down or give up, but I felt that it is too much of an agile trait and the Kislev people did not strike me as particularly agile, though they are dexterous (most being horse riders and archers in the mould of the Mongols) they did not seem agile in an balletic, acrobatic elf way. Similarly I saw some rosters in which most of the roster had Side Step, but again I felt this was too agility orientated. Fend felt like the best fit to me. Their history is full of stories of them fending off the Beastmen of Chaos, Marauders, Norse Beserkers, Warriors of Chaos, stories of them holding their ground against the odds. So to me this felt the most natural fit.

Continuing in the vein I did not want them to have Throwers in the typical sense of the word as I felt this was too attack orientated. As the team Kishago Werebears also featured in the 1st edition fluff I felt that a team that originated in that era of the game would be suited to having Kickers instead. The Kick skill working as a defensive function, typically kicking the ball deep and forcing their opposition to start from the very back of their half giving the Kislev team time to form and impenetrable defensive line. Similarly starting with HMP instead of the more attack orientated Pass skill made sense, using these players to pounce on any loose balls and chuck the ball down field preventing their opponent from scoring. The skill is not really used typically in an attacking sense but more just to scupper any opposition teams attack.

The Kossars; so called as they are a staple of as Kislev fluff are the elite soldiers of the Kislev army. Are basically your blockers, given Wrestle over Block for its defensive qualities and Stand Firm felt appropriate for a team and nation that is so defence orientated and unyielding.

Wings were called this again based on the Kislev army. In the army they typically ride on horseback, a light cavalry, their function was basically for flanking and I felt this fitted quite nicely with the Blood Bowl theme. These are your only truly offensive players in the team and the name Wings is also similar to winger used in football to describe a player that players in the wide zones of the pitch. The catch skill means they will be reliable at receiving hand offs and with access to Agility skills they should be able to get them self blodged up pretty quickly making them more reliable ball carriers and scorers. However as with the rest of the team they also have a defensive function; Pass Block which gives you some good defensive cover against the agile races as well, especially when you consider they have Ag access meaning Blodge, Side Step and Diving Tackle can combine very nicely with Pass Block.

Finally came the Werebears. They were included because of the team Kishago Werebears and also Praag Changelings are a famous team too. Praag is a place in Kislev and Werebears fit the theme of changelings too.

The Werebears are your basic Big Guys, I opted for Really Stupid as the nega-trait as I envisage them being instructed and trained to play the game instead of just slaughtering their own team. Having big bears in the team also has parallels with bear baiting and dancing. As the team is all Ma6 and the Linemen are Av7 I felt 2 Werebears were required to help give the team some beef, adding to the tar-pit style of the team and giving them the ability to hit back. I went for Mighty Blow on the big guys over claw for 2 reasons, firstly I was always under the impression Claw on the Werewolves was actually their bite as their Claw skill used to be called Fang. I also don’t envisage the Bears using their bite to attack opposing players, instead using their big bear paw to crush the skulls of any opposing players. The other reason is I didn’t want this to become another CPOMB team as its focus should all be on defence not clearing the pitch and racking up the TDs. I added Grab to represent their bear hug, picking up opposing players crushing them then dumping their body in an adjacent square. It isn’t a perfect fit but it is the closest fitting skill and also adds some defence to Side Stepping Elves.

Season 2 Changes
215 games played with a win percentage of 52.3%. No change is needed, the team is performing as expected at mid tier 1.

Season 3
308 games played with a win percentage of 44.81%. This puts the team in the Tier 1.5 to 2 range. Which is lower than I expected. I felt this team would function between 1.5 and low end tier 1. If it keeps performing poorly I will remove loner from the big guys, currently though I do not see the need.

Season 4
Kislev contiue to perform a little below expecations with 544 games played this year and a win percentage of 44.03% I decided to give them a small buff, increasing their Wings Ma by 1 to Ma7 and the appropriate price increase.

Team design by Garion and Zakatan, based on an old team design by plasmoid
background and rationale by Garion
Player pictures by Knut Rockie, coloured by Garion
Player icons designed by Cowhead.