Bashy vs Squishy
By Coach Dragon

Throughout the history of the DragonBowl league, there have been many debates about which teams are "better". The BloodBowl teams have been described as "Bashy", (i.e. Aggressive) or squishy (i.e. Sustaining injuries easily). In this document, I hope to shed a bit of light on the subject, possibly exploring some misconceptions, and hopefully instigate another healthy round of debate.

Please note that I simply write this document as a coach who has played both "bashy" and "squishy" teams in our league. These are my personal opinions and observations and in no way reflect those of the league commissioner.

Definition of Terms

For the purposes of this article, we will assume that when Games Workshop created BloodBowl, they intended, as in most games involving alien races, that humans be the quintessential average team. From a simple observation of the abilities of the human team, we see that humans possess 4 players with access to strength skills, 4 players with access to agility skills, and an AV of 7.75

From these observations, we can begin by defining some terms

Squishy: Teams with AV < 7.75
Crunchy: Teams with AV >  7.75
Bashy: Teams that have more than 4 players with access to STR skills
Finesse: Teams that have more than 4 players with access to AG skills

As you can see by these definitions, comparing bashy vs. squishy is similar to comparing apples and oranges, since we are comparing Armor value to skills. According to these definitions we can classify all the teams in a manner that everyone can agree on.

Classification of Teams

The following table shows the classification of Bloodbowl teams using our definitions as criteria. The team rosters are created with the following limitations; all position players are purchased, 16 players, a big guy if permitted, an apothecary if permitted. Please note that classifications of team rosters would change if not all position players are purchased. For example, if the Khemri team does not purchase all of its mummies but instead decides to purchase only zombies, it would no longer be considered a bashy team.

So, lets classify all our teams (AV in brackets):

* The Lizardman team appears twice, as it meets criteria for both Finesse and Bashy

Cost of Roster

Another assumption we must make is that Games Workshop bases the cost of a player on stats, skills, and racial traits that a player has. A simple conclusion from this is that the more expensive players are also the players with the greater abilities. To take this idea one step further, one can say that the team that fields the most expensive roster has a higher quality team than the team that fields a less expensive roster. Please note that this does not include any SPP gained or any potential skill increases. It also doesn't take into account rerolls and such.

The following table shows the cost of the teams with rosters that are created with the following limitations; all position players are purchased, 16 players, a big guy if permitted, and an apothecary if permitted.

Monetary Gains

According to some current theories, squishy teams make similar amounts of money as crunchy teams. As per the rules, winning a match will reward a team with a bonus to the amount of match winnings for the winning team, and well as give a bonus to the fan factor roll thus giving a better chance for increased income in future matches. Therefore, this theory could only be true if one also concludes that the number of games won by squishy teams is roughly equal to those won by crunchy teams.

Due to the reduced AV of squishy teams, over time they will focus more money on replacing players. The AV of the crunchy teams should ensure that their players are replaced less often and therefore crunchy teams will accumulate excess money at some point in time. At some point, the excess money will boost the crunchy team's Team Rating without providing any in-game benefit to the team. In essence, this excess money becomes the equivalent of "empty-calories". At this point, the crunchy team must use the money to enhance the team's abilities (via coaches, cheerleaders, rerolls,...) or spend the money on single-shot game-boosters (via freebooters, wizards,…) or else suffer the negative effects of having a high Team Rating (handicap rolls against, reduced winnings).

Strategies for Winning

To win at BloodBowl, there are many techniques. Generally, strategy can be broken down into two main forms. By the definition of the rules, the team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. The other way to win is to get the other team to concede the match.

Winning by scoring is generally the most adopted strategy, requiring that the ball is moved a total of approximately 26 squares across the field. Many experienced finesse teams are able to accomplish a touchdown in as little as 2 turns, with passing plays and hand-offs. Most bashy teams are ill suited to this style of play, as their MV requires that they spend more than 2 turns accomplishing this task. Many bashy teams control the number of 2 turn finesse plays used against them by controlling the clock (i.e. controlling the ball and waiting for the clock to run out before scoring their final touchdown for the half).

With the new rules changes, winning by forcing your opponent to concede becomes more difficult because the opposing coach is no longer forced to concede the match when they can no longer field sufficient players. If both teams field full rosters, a team would have to eject, on average, one opponent per turn in order to fully deplete the opponent's roster. To further achieve this goal, the aggressive team may also foul one player per turn. This tactic does not come without risks, as a foul which is caught results in a turnover, as well as the possibility of having one's own player ejected from the game, thus reducing your chances of achieving the 1 ejection/turn quota for the current drive (i.e. 10 blocks per turn instead of 11). In general, this is very difficult task to accomplish. In fact, I don't believe that it has yet been achieved in our league play, with the hundreds of games that have been played so far.

Conclusions

I'd like to conclude this exploration by saying that deciding which team to play is very dependant on your style of play. There are teams for every style and in the end I don't believe that any team has an inherent advantage over another. My final parting thoughts are that if you are emotionally tied to your players, I would suggest a crunchy team, as the increased AV may increase the lifespan of your players. If you are emotionally tied to your team, I would suggest a flavor of elf since their starting abilities enhance the team's chances of glory in the league.