Teams in Blood Bowl

There are 21 teams available in Blood Bowl.Living Rulebook 5 post the following disclaimer for some of them:

Designer's Note: Some of the above 21 teams are more challenging than the others to play either because of their skills requiring advanced strategies to be effective or because they have difficulty winning. These teams have been designed this way on purpose to give challenges to coaches who master the basics of Blood Bowl. These more challenging teams are: Chaos, Dark Elf, Goblin, Halfling, Nurgle, Ogre and Vampire. Coaches should be aware that these are considered teams for more advanced players and can be confusing or difficult to use if you are new to the game.

Amazon

The Amazon team was added in Living Rulebook 1, and is an exclusively female only human team (although they are allowed access to some male 'Star Players' in the current rules). They are popular as the players are relatively inexpensive, with access at starting levels to key skills and the team has access to cheaper team re-rolls than most teams. With additional agility skills to the standard human teams, the Amazons are hard to hit and hard to lock down, but fragile due to below average armour values.

Chaos

The Chaos team is one of the additional six teams supplied in the 'Death Zone' addition to the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions. The essential difference between the 3rd edition onwards and earlier incarnations of the team is that Chaos is now a combination of powerful Chaos Warriors and Beastmen instead of mutated humans. It is considered a more difficult team in shorter leagues due to lack of starting skills, but a killer team (in more than one way) in longer leagues due to its suitability to brutal plays and ability to grind down opposing teams in the long term.

Chaos Dwarf

The Chaos Dwarf team is one of the additional six teams supplied in the 'Death Zone' addition to the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 2nd edition as part of the Chaos Team. Besides Chaos Dwarves, the team features Hobgoblins (initially a team in 1st edition), Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs and access to a Minotaur. It was not widely used until the addition of Bull Centaurs in Living Rulebook 1, but Chaos Dwarf teams are now regarded as serious contenders due to the versatility of these players.

Dark Elf

The Dark Elves team is one of the original six teams in the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions, making them one of the longest running teams available. Although as Elves, Dark Elves are extremely agile and good at 'flair' plays involving passing, catching and quick touchdowns, the players are more specialized in the 'running' game; something introduced by the games designers to reflect the vicious temperament of the race. As they are not particularly suited to this kind of play (being more vulnerable to injury than the other teams based around this approach to the game), they are considered one of the harder teams to master but reward the experienced coach.

Dwarf

The Dwarf team is one of the original six teams in the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions, making them another longstanding team in the game. Although Dwarf players are more expensive than the average players in the game, Dwarves are highly skilled and extremely proficient at blocking other teams. Dwarves are very slow but very tough too, and are naturally suited to a slow 'running game', hammering its way through the opposition.

Elf

The Elf team was meant to replace the High Elf team (in the in-game literature the Elf team is made up of veteran High Elves that have no financial backing from the affluent High Elf Princedom; something which may explain a 'retro' circa 2nd Edition look to the official Elf team models) but failed. It was added in Living Rulebook 3. Essentially, it allows access to players from the High Elf team at slightly lower cost - enabling a better starting team for tournaments, albeit with a lower armour rating.

Goblin

The Goblin team is one of the additional six teams supplied in the Death Zone addition to the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions. Although Goblins are certainly statistically some of the worst players available in the game, the Goblin team does feature access to a variety of 'highly illegal' secret weapons. This often leads to a very random game, as they are often very effective at helping the Goblins score or severely injure their opponents, if very unreliable. Ultimately, they do lose the most games though.

Halfling

The Halfling team is one of the additional six teams supplied in the Death Zone addition to the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions.The Halfling team is considered by many to be easily the worst team; its players being slow, weak, not suited to passing the ball and extremely easily hurt. The only two benefits going for the Halfling team is that the players are also very cheap, and that they have access to very powerful Treemen players, as supporting blockers and have the ability to hurl a hafling with the ball into the end-zone.

High Elf

The High Elves team is one of the original six teams in the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions (as a generic Elf team). Whilst the players are (as with all Elf teams) quite expensive to field, they are also very proficient at 'flair' plays, which the team is geared around, and with relatively strong armour. As such, High Elves have been refined as masters of the passing game, and feature stronger catchers than most teams.

Human

The Human team is one of the original six teams in the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions. The Human team is best described as a 'jack of all trades, master of none' team. They are not skilled or deficient in any particular direction, allowing the human coach to cater to however he or she prefers to play the game. This allows coaches to adapt to games on a game to game basis and often will make humans the hardest to stop.

Khemri

The Khemri team is one of the three teams which were meant to replace the Undead team. It was added in Living Rulebook 3. Slow and cumbersome, but very, very strong (and being undead very difficult to take out of the game too), perhaps more so than any other team, the Khemri rely upon a slow, grinding 'running' game of bruising their way down the pitch; injuring anyone in their way, and fouling anybody still left!

Lizardman

The Lizardmen team was added in Living Rulebook 1. The Lizardman team is a unique team with very specialised personnel, equal parts aggressive and quick, combining the brutal strength of hulking Saurus and Kroxigor players, and the agility of the much weaker Skink players. Although an accutely focused and somewhat inflexible team as a result, the Lizardmen are often a relatively effective team that is very intimidating to play against.

Necromantic

The Necromantic team is one of the three teams which were meant to replace the Undead team. It was added in Living Rulebook 3. The Necromatic team is much like the Undead team, but sacrifices some degree of strength and suitability of blocking players, for team members that are instead faster and more agile, such as Werewolves and ghouls. This generally speaking makes the Necromatic team the most likely Undead team to score highly in their games, whilst retaining some of the raw staying power native to these teams too.

Norse

The Norse team was added in Living Rulebook 1 and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions. Although possessing a below average armour rating in all of its players, the Norse team is well suited to blocking and aggressive 'running' plays, especially when compared to the other human teams. Its players have a higher than average incidence of the skills 'block' and 'Frenzy', reflecting the teams aggressive nature, and also have access to the powerful Ulfwerener and Snow Troll players.

Nurgle

Based loosely around the Chaos team, the Nurgle team was an attempt at reincarnate the infamous and popular 'Nurgle's Rotters' team from 1st edition of Blood Bowl. In the current rules, it was added in Living Rulebook 3. At time of writing, it is the only official Chaos God aligned team, with its own rules (to reflect the conditions of the players) to make it unique. Due to the nature of these rules, the Nurgle team is extremely effective in disrupting passing plays and fast paced 'running' games.

Ogre

The Ogre team was added in Living Rulebook 4 and comprised of Ogres and Goblins. It was revised under Living Rulebook 5 to feature unreliable but strong Ogres assisted by weak but reliable Snotlings, as the team was considered overpowered, and not destinct enough from the Goblin team (which can instead now feature Trolls as its token 'big-guy'). The team is essentially a dangerous one, with ability to either annihilate the opposition, or to spend the entire match standing around trying to remember what it was doing in the first place.

Orc

The Orc team is one of the original six teams in the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions, giving them a strong pedigree in the game. Orcs are possibly the most versatile of the 'running' play teams, being tough and well armoured, but also relatively fast, with a wide variety of players (including Goblins and a Troll) to suit the individual coaches requirements, and with the ability to field high numbers of players in key positions.

Skaven

The Skaven team is one of the original six teams in the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in the 1st (described in a White Dwarf article) and 2nd edition, and is widely regarded as one of the strongest teams in the game. The Skaven team is easily one of the fastest teams, and are extremely adept at running through gaps in the oppositions defences to score quickly, and very often. Although this is offset by low armour, they are also able to field higher numbers of players, due to the average player being inexpensive, and can afford to make provision for a high number of team re-rolls.

Undead

The Undead team is one of the additional six teams supplied in the 'Death Zone' addition to the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions, although its official miniature range was incomplete. Of all the undead teams, it is the most versatile team, with access to the heavy hitting Mummies (although in lower numbers) of the Khemri, and the agile Ghouls of the Necromantic team (although it does not have access to the Werewolf players), with the standard expendable and cheap zombie and skeleton players (from the Necromantic and Khemri teams respectively).

Vampire

The Vampire team is one of the three teams which were meant to replace the Undead team. It was added in Living Rulebook 4. Of all the undead teams, they are the most unique, as they field only two types of player, whom cannot be purchased for any other team (there is some crossover within player types in the Undead teams - see above). Vampires in Blood Bowl are superior players, being strong, fast and agile, but also suffering from the trait 'bloodlust' which can seriously hamper their effectiveness.

Wood Elf

The Wood Elf team is one of the additional six teams supplied in the 'Death Zone' addition to the 3rd edition of the game and were also available in 1st and 2nd editions. The Wood Elves are faster but more fragile than High Elf and Dark Elf teams, that nonetheless are probably the most distinct and stylish 'flair' team in the game. As Elves, they are expensive but very agile players, which coupled with the increased speed of the team, lead them to be regarded as one of the stronger teams, and as such they are also one of the most popular.

Experimental teams

Chaos Pact, a lineup taken from different races (humans, goblins, dark elves, skavens, minotaurs, ogres and trolls) all worshipping chaos inspired by the great Chaos All-Stars team.
Slann, a team of leaping frogmen.Underworld, an unlikely combination of goblins and skavens with frequent mutation and bad team spirit inspired by the infamous Underworld Creepers team.

Discontinued teams

"Albion", "Bretonnia", "Werewolf"