Back to Secret League

Lybaras Teams

Player Pics


Player Icons
Skeletons

Sepulchral Stalkers

Necrotects

Bomber

Bone Giant


Famous Teams
Dekka's Decomposing Decimators. First mentioned in White Dwarf (issue no.94)

Background
Lybaras was once the most advanced civilisation in the world. The Khemrians who lived there created huge constructs and devices so technologically advanced it would take thousands of years before The World caught up with their achievements. Sadly as with all of Khemri the living were wiped out a long time ago, but their skeletal remains still stalk the desolate lands in a parody of their former lives.

Lybaras was the first of all the Khemri cities to become involved in Blood Bowl (in their current undead form anyway) very shortly after Mungk rediscovered the game. Skeleton teams started making their way from Lybaras to the Old World where the games were plentiful and one team would make their mark on the game forever - Dekka's Decomposing Decimators led (like all teams in Khemri) by a powerful sorcerer - Bilakk'n Dekka in this case.

The game kicked off, the all Skeleton team was receiving, two Orcs punched their way through the brittle Skeleton front line and charged down on a Skeleton who was preparing to throw the ball. Two Skeletons positioned them selves in front of the thrower, running interference. The Orcs thought nothing of it and continued the charge. With a buzz and a thump the Orcs lay in pieces on the floor, much to the delight of the crowd, the 2 skeletons running interference were carrying chainsaws. No one had ever seen these contraptions before and the Orcs had no answer for them, they turned and ran reporting the offence to the NAF as soon as they could. A few days later an NAF official tracked Dekka's team down to investigate the device, Bilakk was all too keen to give the NAF official a personal demonstration. The use of chainsaws in the game has never come in to question again.

The game went down in history and the chainsaw started appearing in other teams along with all manner of other weapons. At the time rumour had it that Dekka had made a pact with a daemon for the weapon, but after Ruff wrote his guide on Khemri it became clear these devices originated in Lybaras. Skeletons still work endlessly like a whip was at their back on all manner of weapons and constructs, and over the years many more teams have come from this region, each led by a power sorcerer looking to take advantage of the regions unique resources.

Rationale
The idea for this roster actually dates back to first edition Blood Bowl and White Dwarf issue 94. In the edition JJ et al wrote the first rules for using Chainsaws in Blood Bowl for the first time and some background to accompany it. Basically the idea for Chainsaws in Blood Bowl actually came from a Golden Demon competition back in 1986 or 87 in which JJ saw a diorama called Pass Interference; in which a Skeleton player was about to throw the ball while being protected by two chainsaw wielding Skeletons. After this the background of how an all Skeleton team called Dekka's Decomposing Decimators was the first to use a Chainsaw in Blood Bowl. No one knew where they got the weapon from though there were many rumours. I used this fluff along with a number of other bits and pieces from later editions including the original Khemri Blood Bowl back story - of how Khemri used to be inhabited by an ancient living race that played Blood Bowl long before it was rediscovered by Mungk. Also I decided to make Hack Enslash the existing star player come from this region; to flesh it out, give him a bit more background and provide further reason why players in this region still use Chainsaws.

Lybaras was a city in ancient times that was home to the greatest mechanics in The World which also supported the chainsaw theme. Because of this I decided to call the Chainsaw players Necrotects which is what the mechanics of this region are called, it adds more flavour like the Looney from the Goblin team, or Master Engineer from the Dwarf Engineers team, it just sounds better than calling that position Chainsaw.

Similarly I added the Bomber positional as there was a Skeleton Star Player in Compendium 3 called Mad Bomber, so it makes sense that he would also originate from this area of the world.

Once it became apparent I was dealing with a roster from Lybaras it then became obvious that I had to include other Khemrian constructs the two most iconic and workable were the Bone Giant (a giant constructed of bone) and Sepulchral Stalkers who were part snake like construct and part skeleton. Both of these constructs originated in this region and as Lybaras is also known for worshipping a snake like deity it became clear that the Sepulchral Stalkers were a perfect fit.

The Bone Giant got the stats and skills above because Skeletons are Humans with -1 Ma, and -1 Av gaining Thick Skull and Regenerate. On this basis I already had a Giant in the Lumbria team so the player kept the same skills and stat line -1 Ma and -1 Av and gained Thick Skull and Regenerate. Although he is technically a construct and not an undead giant the rationale behind it still made sense to me so this is what I stuck with.

The Necrotects are just Skeletons with a Chainsaw so that was straight forward. The Skeletons stayed the same as standard Skeletons.

The Sepulchral Stalkers like the Snakemen have Prehensile Tail as they are half Skeleton half snake. They gain the Hypnotic Gaze skill because they have a Transmogrifying Gaze. So Hypnotic Gaze fits perfectly here. The hardest part of their design was settling on a stat line. In the end I went with 6338, although their size would suggest they should be higher strength their are actually pretty weak in WFB considering how big the models are - though I did give them S access and Thick Skull as that extra toughness both fits fluff wise as they are skeletal and also means they take hits better than humans which they should, while S access means they hit better. Also to use their transmogrifying gaze ability starting with anything less than ag3 would make it pretty pointless.

Season 2 Changes
290 games played with a win percentage of 42.3%. There team is performing below what is expected though no buff was provided. Like many weapon teams an over reliance on weapons is adversely effecting the teams win percentage. Anecdotally, no one felt the team was too weak, and some even felt it a top tier team. Overall I felt it was certainly good enough and not in need of changing.

Season 3
286 games played with a win percentage of 41% which is tier 2 still. The team is still performing below what was expected. I expected this race to function as a tier 1.5 team. They consistently perform below what was expected. But I still believe anecdotally they are a victim of people not getting the most out of the secret weapons, or relying on them too much at low TV. If the stats are correct and the team really is a tier 2 team then that is also ok for me. As the roster design is fun, unique and in keeping with the regions background.

Team design rationale and background by Garion
Player pics by Knut_Rockie and coloured by Garion
Icons by Cowhead and Whatball