It Might sound silly but a lot of people jump straight into a new game without actualy reading the rules.... even though they have to click to say you've read them and you agree.

Thing is the <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=help&op=rules>site rules</a> really are important and are well worth reading again to make sure you've understood them. The consequences for breaking the rules will apply even if you say you did'nt read them properly.


The game itself is still following the LRB4 rules at the moment which can be downloaded from <a href=http://www.bloodbowlonline.com/LivingRulebook4.pdf>here</a> and although long really are essential to read to properly be able to understand the game.

It's very common to have a lot of questions when your first starting out on this site or to have problems come up that you need an answer to. You can go into chat and ask there but more often than not the answers are already out there waiting to be discovered in the <a href=http://fumbbl.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpWiki&file=index>help section</a> which can be found in the top right hand corner of your overview page. Using the help section can save you time and ensure you get the correct answer/ advice rather than just someones opinion.
If you can't find what you are looking for then try searching the forums followed by asking in the academy or main IRC channels (#fumbblacademy and #fumbbl).

Even though the <a href=http://fumbbl.com/help:TeamCreation>team creation</a> information can already be found in the help section i felt it was particularly worth highlighting.

Most teams on FUMBBL are meant to be designed for long term survival and almost no team will last that long without a good starting fanfactor. Personaly I always try to aim for FF9 when starting a new team and would never start with less than 7 unless the team was designed to be only used for a very short time. Too low a fan factor and you simply won't make enough money to keep your team healthy and competative in the long run. There are also a lot of people who will not play vrs new teams with a low fan factor as it also affects the amount of cash they will make.

Its very important to ensure that your team starts with at least a few re-rolls as these will double in price once you've started playing with the team. It's generaly beter to start with more linemen than you'd like and less positional players than to begin without rr's.

Never hire cheerleaders or assistant coaches on a starter team.

Most people wont start with an apothocary either as they are either unlikely to take much damage against another rookie team or would simply re-start if the damage is too bad in game one.

The help section also contains some very usefull <a href=http://fumbbl.com/help:Strategy>strategy guides</a> which are well worth reading through and adapting into your own play to help you improve as a coach. As well as these there is an entire <a href=http://fumbbl.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewforum&f=4>strategy section</a> in the forums.

Another good peice of advice is to regularly watch or play against the top rated coaches and pick up some tips from them.

For a lot of coaches who are new to FUMBBL, but have played the game in real life before, it comes as a big shock when they start off by loosing more than they are used to. This was certainly the case for me.

Most of us who have played in real life have played vrs the same small set of friends who are all about as experienced as us and will usualy use the same small set of tactics each time. Few of us (unless we've played in large leagues or big tournies) have played more than about 10 different opponents accross maybe 100 games on tabletop. On FUMBBL there are coaches who have played thousands of games (yes you may think thats sad now but soon you'll be that hooked too) vrs several hundred different opponents.

But fear not... even the best coaches on here were new once too.

P.S. I do NOT count myself amoungst these "good coaches"... I still suck :D

Success in blood bowl is a mixture of luck and skill.
Even with little skill you can still win with a LOT of luck (but i wouldn't recomend this strategy even if it IS the one i use) and teh more skillfull you become the less of an impact good/ bad luck will have on your game.

FUMBBL uses a <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_Number_Generator>random number generator</a> called the <a href=http://fumbbl.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1301>mersene twister</a> to produce all the dice rolls in the client. The have been many occasions in the forums where peopel have complained that the RNG is not random, or "clumps" numbers together but it has been shown many times to be an extremely good generator (much better than is really needed for something as unimportant as a game of bloodbowl).

It can be common to assume that if you are loosing it is all the fault of bad dice. Sometimes it genuinely can be but usualy it is that we are playing in a way that will allow bad dice (which MUST happen to be truely random) to ruin all our game plans.

The best coaches learn to minimise the effect of dice on their turns and there are a number of good articles about this throughout the forums which are well worth reading.

Play your turn idealy in this order:

A) Plan your turn so you know what you hope each player will do and where you want them to be at the end of the turn.

B) Do all moves that do not require any dice first

C) If the ball is somewhere where a failed pickup would allow your opponent to go after it then cover it with other players if possible before attempting a pick up

D) Do your "safest" dice moves next (3 dice blocks where your player has block and a re-roll available etc)

E) Get the ball and put it where you want it to be.

F) Do any other blocks/ dodges that you wanted to do BUT only if the consequences of them failing are not too bad. Sometimes it is better to just not use a player than to have them fall and allow your opponent easy access past your defense.


Remember that the human mind is naturaly programed to notice and remember the most significant things. Therefor we often don't notice the 7 or 8 dice that DIDN'T roll a 1 first. We just remember the dreaded 1 that we rolled in the end.

Cherrypicking (like stalling and fouling) is one of those hotly debated subjects that everyone has their own opinions about on FUMBBL.

Roughly speaking someone may be considered to be a cherrypicker if they regularly play matches that are heavily in their favour in their persuit of their own particular set of goals.

Broadly speaking there are 3 main goals some people may have for their picking:

1) To get easy wins

2) To destroy other teams

3) To build up their own team

(to be finnished)

(to be finnished)

(to be finnished)

FUMBBL is a very wide comunity with a lot of different coaches and playing styles. Often you will come up against people who have a different set of "game morals" to you.
It might be that you think continueing to bash players after the game is won is unfair or that stalling is lame but sooner or later you will play people who feel differently about these issues.
It's important to remember that, as long as someone is playing within the rules, their way of playing is as valid as yours and provides potential for learning even if you don't enjoy it.
The best thing to do if a game annoys you is simply to remember not to play that coach again and move on. There is no point letting one bad experience become anything more than a short irritation by dragging it out. You may find one day your own view on certain tactics has changed anyway.

FUMBBL has a large <a href=http://fumbbl.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=PNphpBB2&file=index>forum section</a> which ranges from general discusion, to tactics to how to solve problems with the game and a lot of answers you seek will be found in here with a little bit of <a href=http://fumbbl.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=5075>searching</a> .

Most topics of conversation have already been covered so before you start a new topic its worth looking to see if it's already in there.

Just because certain thing like <a href=http://fumbbl.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=8841>stalling and fouling</a> have been discussed a lot does not mean that you shouldn't feel that you can still talk about them but it's important to be aware of how some older coaches will react.

If you start a new thread on a heavily discussed subject like fouling (for example) then you will likely get a fair amount of groaning and comments like "this has been discussed before... go and search the forums". If you revive an old thread on the subject you may be accused (by different coaches) of thread necromancy and incur yet more groaning.
It's important (for all of us) to remember however that just because us older coaches have talked about it a lot doesn't mean newer coaches don't have the same right we did.
It may help just to be aware that these reactions are likely.

There will come a time when it is necessery for you to contact the admins for one reason or another. Hopefully (if you have read and obeyed the rules) this will not be because you are in trouble but simply because there is a problem that needs to be sorted out.

There are 2 ways to contact the admins either through a support ticket (see "support" in the banner on your overview) or by joining the channel #fumbbladmin in IRC (chat).

Whichever way you use please bear in mind that the admins on this site are volunteers who give up their own gaming time for free in order to help us out. Please be patient with them and remember that the more courtious you are to them the more help they can give you.