Player Profile : Blocker

A key concept in playing Blood Bowl is pitch control : If your team can direct the opposing team where they can go and more importantly where they cannot go, you're an important step closer to victory. Some teams have speed and agility to impose pitch control, other teams rely on straight-forward brutal force. The latter requires development of a low-profile but extremely powerful positional, especially when fielded in high numbers : The Blocker.

The Blocker is resilient, dominates his tackle zones and isn't going anywhere unless by his own choice. Blockers are strong, tough and skilled in such a way they make the opposition think twice of engaging them. Important positional points like cage corners, wide zones, flanks on the line of scrimmage, running lanes for opposing Runners and Catchers, ... are held by your Blockers as they give the highest assurance to hold their position and by doing so disrupt the opponent's play.

The latter is quite unique for the Blocker compared to other player profiles : Blockers can be most succesfull by doing nothing, dig in and stand their ground ! Because of this passive mode of action, many Big Guys are best suited to the role of Blocker as their negatraits need to be triggered by an action.

Blockers are very complementary to each other. Shoulder to shoulder, they dominate pockets on the pitch with concentrated blocking power and resilience. A set of strong Blockers will negate blocking opportunities to weaker opponents, next retaliating and clearing the pitch. This is very useful when in a scrum around a loose ball, protecting a ball carrier or breaking a cage.

The Blocker is a versatile player, with important tasks both in offence and defence. On top, the Blocker can take care of himself, not requiring screening or protection from other players. The worst which can happen to this often slow player profile is poor positioning. This can cause him to be isolated from the action while he's at his best in the scrum, making life miserable to weaker players.

Looking at stat lines, Blockers profit from high AV and ST, and have little use for AG or MA. Skills focus on keeping them on their feet and immobile during engagements. Blockers dominate the scrum, requiring skills which concentrate blocking power and help disabling opposing players. Very importantly, Blockers perform best in team, so it makes little sense to develop a single Blocker.

Block will be the first skill you want on your Blocker as it keeps him on his feet, keeps his tackle zones intact and will drastically increase the offensive capacities of your player. For a second skill, one can try to be original but there are few reasons not to take Guard. When establishing a power pocket on the pitch, Guard is invaluable. A couple of Blockers with Block and Guard will effectively negate the opposing team from breaking your line. The combination of Block and Guard will enable 90% of the potential of your Blocker, so as long as you don't carry this set I'd negate double star player rolls and stat increases, except for a ST increase.

Additional skills are less crucial and allow for some diversification. Stand Firm, Mighty Blow, Tackle and Grab are valid options. I don't like skills which leave your Blocker on the ground, so would never consider Diving Tackle, Piling On or Wrestle. Dodge should be considered for double star player rolls, as in combination with Block it makes your player a very unattractive target for a block or blitz. Only a ST increase makes sense on a Blocker, all other stat increases are a waste (assuming your Blocker started with a high AV).

When selecting potential Blockers you'll be looking for minimum ST 3 but preferably ST 4, AV 9 and access to both General and Strength skills. Teams developing Blockers should have multiple potential players which can be dedicated to this player profile. Nice examples (but not limited to) are Black Orcs, Chaos Warriors, Sauri and Dwarf Blockers. Some teams have no access to developing Blockers:  Amazons, Norse, Skaven and all Elf teams.

A separate note on Big Guys : Many of these thick-headed mountains of muscle are prime Blocker material with 2 obvious handicaps: Their negatraits and no access to General skills. Developing Big Guys in Blockers offsets the first handicap. Blockers excell in a passive role, which does not require to test for the negatrait. The second handicap boils down to requiring a double star player roll to acquire Block. But even without easy access to Block a ST 5, AV 9, Mighty Blow player with access to Strength skills (Guard) develops into a formidable roadblock, especially when flanked by a couple of dedicated Blocker player profiles. Wild Animals require a different approach and are less fit as Blockers.