Blood Bowl is a very affordable game by GW standards, but even in there exists a bit of nuance. While there’s lots of great third-party teams, printable teams, and kitbash opportunity, most of the GW plastic teams look great themselves! However, not every team is built the same, and some require more additional purchases to feel “truly complete” than others. This will be a beginner’s guide to the value of the official Blood Bowl boxes and what you need to make the team complete and play the way it’s expected to.
As a first note, every team can be played out of one box, and every team technically can use more linemen, big guys, and star players to have every option available. But some boxes are stronger starting points than others, and some teams will not really feel “functional” unless you get some extra stuff. While some teams can struggle along, they will quickly feel the weight of their missing pieces, especially once you get more experience playing the game.
The main viewpoint here is to see how one would feel playing in a League or Tournament if all they had was a single box of the team. We’ll go through every (current) Blood Bowl team box and let you know, on a scale of A to F, how good they are as a singular purchase.
A – Great, basically need nothing else. Expansions are welcome but unnecessary and only if you feel like it for some variety down the line.
B – Will perform very adequately, though the things missing from the box are common picks and improve the team.
C – Playable, and might even perform decently out of a single box, but the missing pieces are massive power boosters and increase the feel of the team. These teams probably will feel clunky until you get the expanded players.
D – Downright miserable to play out of one box. As always, you can, but I would heavily recommend against it.
F – Please don’t. There are people that care about you.
Amazons
This box is great. It has every positional you can take is in here, and they don’t have a Big Guy to worry about! There are some great Stars that Amazons can take, but they’re not required by any means.
However, it’s rare to see any Amazon team run more than 1 Thrower, and some coaches don’t run any at all, so you may end up converting a Thrower to a Linewoman and/or source a couple spares. Especially if you’re going for a League and want a bench or some variant starting rosters.
Overall though, you’ll be able to play this out of one box extremely well. Giving this one an A
Black Orcs
Another solid one! 6 Black Orcs is the max you can take, and you’ll be playing them basically every time unless they get injured. The only thing I’ll say is that over the course of a League, 6 Goblins might be somewhat light and you may end up wanting more to warm the bench or to show up as Journeymen, but it’s far from required.
Black Orcs do have a Big Guy, and honestly the Troll is a great addition to the team. I think Trolls get a bad rap – while I think they’re one of the worst Big Guys in the game, even a mediocre Strength 5 piece is extremely good to have, especially if you can get a skill for Guard. While the team box doesn’t have one, the 2020 Starter box does if you bought it through that means. The GW Plastic Troll is… fine, though a bit monopose, it’s nice to have plastic prices instead of FW resin sometimes.
This box gets a B from me. Not quite as much of a one-stop as the Amazon box, since the Troll and more Goblins add a good amount to people who want it, but still very good.
Chaos Chosen
This one is actually very similar to the Black Orc box, in that you have one positional type that you can bring 6 of, and they’re all in the box. Everything I said about Black Orcs applies here – you may want more Linegoats to fill the bench, though luckily Beastmen in general are in no short supply so an intrepid kitbasher should be able to get some Goats basically anywhere they want.
And like the BlOrcs, there’s a big guy here. And honesty the Minotaur is an excellent Big Guy – very reliable and violent. Most Chaos players I know run one, so you’ll probably want to pick one up eventually. Bullgors from the former Beasts of Chaos line are great conversion fodder if you can find them, and there’s lots of good third party options on top of the FW one (which is also quite good). Really, anything big and bull-like will be good.
Just like Black Orcs, this gets a solid B.
Dark Elves
Dark Elves are the first of three elf teams that GW currently sells, and the box is… not great. First of all, you don’t get any Assassins in the box at all. That’s not the worst issue in the world, since Assassins are kind of mediocre players. You generally only take them if you already are maxed on Blitzers and Runners, but want another, cheapish, MA7 piece.
Speaking of Blitzers, the box only comes with 2 and you really, really want all four. Dark Elf Blitzers are some of the best generalist players in the game, and you want as many as you can get. And often, in order to get all four to start, you’ll need to go heavy on Linemen, so even picking up a 7th or 8th Lineman might be useful.
Overall, the team needs a lot more than what one box gives you. It’s playable, and you can struggle along in a season or tournament, but you really need 2 boxes or to source some extra players. C
Dwarves
This is the easiest one. The Dwarf box is well known to be the best one box team on the market. You want to run 2 Blitzers. You want to run 2 Troll Slayers. You want to run 2 Runners. The team builds itself, and here it is! Extra linemen are nice, but generally unnecessary. Your League starting rosters all can work with 6 Linos unless you specifically starting with the Deathroller. Speaking of which…
The only thing the box doesn’t give you is a Deathroller, and it’s a very divisive piece to say the least. Very expensive, only usable for one Drive most of the time, and may be a bit of a SPP hog on your team by taking Blitz actions and important Blocks. But some people love it. While the FW miniature is awesome, plenty of people go third party or even kitbash out of the many awesome AoS kits like Gyrocopters or Kharadron Overlords.
Despite that, you can absolutely play this team out of one box, never touch the Deathroller, and have a great time. A
Elven Union
Overall a pretty nice box. You get the max on Blitzers, which are your best baseline player, and honestly Elf teams are so expensive that you’re usually not overdoing it on the Linemen for a bench. The only thing missing is two Catchers, and it’s not really necessary to go three or four. Don’t get me wrong, Elven Union Catchers are great. Catch and Nerves of Steel makes them great in a tight spot and S3 keeps them safer than most Catchers or Runners in the game. I tend to like running three, and I would recommend you pick up two more, but again, there’s some personal preference here.
B for me. Highly recommend getting the Catchers, but if you really just want to stick to one box, it’s functional
Gnomes
The new team on the block, and what a box this is. Every positional you need and plenty of Linemen. Great value! However, here’s a trend you’re going to see with every Stunty team – these teams need their Big Guys to function in ways other teams don’t. Non-Stunty teams generally decide whether to take the Big Guy for power over reliability, but Stunty teams need their Big Guys or they’ll get rolled super hard. And that’s absolutely true for Gnomes and their Trees.
On top of that, Stunty teams love Star Players. They don’t need them the same way they need Big Guys, but you’ll find the teams really shine in power level when inducing a Star like Griff, Rodney, Cindy, or even my personal favorite Akhorne!
Unfortunately I have to give this one a D. Trees are too important and you’ll get really frustrated playing one box without them.
Goblins
Everything I just said for Gnomes about Big Guys and Stars goes for Goblins and their Trolls. However, even on top of that, this box is awful because it has NO POSITIONALS AT ALL. No Secret Weapons, no runners, no ‘Ooligan.
Genuinely the worst team box for Blood Bowl, and filling it out with GW and FW expansions is expensive as all get out.
F, without question. This is almost better as just an expansion for Underworld Denizens or any other team that can take Goblins. Don’t start with this box.
Halflings
A third Stunty team in a row! This is more akin to Gnomes than Goblins, thankfully. Another box that is fine for the actual Halflings, but you again need Trees to play at any reasonable capacity. Stars again are recommended but not necessary.
D as before. Great as one box alongside two Trees, but awful without them.
Human
This box is bad on a couple fronts. I haven’t really talked about it with other boxes, but a lot of the GW Blood Bowl teams tend to be a bit monopose, and positionals sometimes look quite similar. They’ve done a better job of this in recent releases, giving lots of head options and accessories to add some flair, but the Human is one of the first two plastic teams and it shows. All the Blitzers, Catchers, and Throwers are identical, and you’ll notice on the table.
Speaking of which, you desperately want to run four Blitzers, and the box has two. You may start seeing this as a trend – but like Dark Elves, your Blitzers are the best generalists on your team, and you want all of them without question. More than two Catchers is rare, but honestly it comes up sometimes and you might as well get them too.
Haven’t even talked about the Ogre, though ultimately it’s pretty personal in terms of choice. The Ogre is one of the best, most reliable Big Guys in the game, but sometimes you just don’t want to roll Bonehead. The team is fine without it, but still not fine without four Blitzers.
C for this one. One box can struggle along, but you’ll be much happier with an expansion in some capacity.
Imperial Nobility
This one is an odd duck. While it gives you every positional you need, and you’ll often run a team with all or most of them, you do really want more than four Linemen in the long run. They are useful for flexible starting rosters in League, they are pretty cheap overall so you might run Griff with more than 4 Linemen in a tournament roster.
The Ogre is an option here like for Humans, and similarly it is quite good, and similarly you don’t need it. Many people enjoy it though (myself included). Again, Ogres are quire reliable and useful, especially with a skill or two, and Nobility is a bit more bash-focused than their all-arounder Human cousins, so it fits quite well in the team.
I’d give the Imps a B. The box is pretty reasonable by itself thanks to having all the positionals, but a few extra pickups wouldn’t hurt.
Khorne
The Blood God’s finest come with an almost perfect box. The models have a bit of a samey-ness issue, but it’s not that bad, the main issue is the lack of all four Khorngors. While the team can function out of one box without them, you will struggle to score consistently. Not that Khorne is really a Dash and mega scoring team, but you do need to get a point or two to win.
The Bloodspawn is an interesting Big Guy. Unreliable and a bit risky, but ultimately it’s another way to punch, and Khorne likes punching. I recommend getting one, though I’m personally not a fan of the FW mini.
Khorne gets a C. You’ll feel the night and day difference between having those extra Khorngors versus not having them
Lizardmen
This is a tough one, since I really like this box but I do think it’s a tinge lacking. While you can easily run it out of the box with no issue, you will eventually want more Skinks. Skinks are great. Decent price for a MA8 AG3+ Dodge piece. Chameleons aren’t quite the same, so having 2 almost feels like a punishment in some ways. Luckily it should be easy to source Skinks of various types.
The Kroxigor is a great Big Guy, and honestly if you just played one box plus a Krox I wouldn’t blame you. I think either the Big Guy or some more Skinks is recommended, and both is better.
This gets a B. I think it’s a passable one box option, but you will likely come to see why people prefer regular Skinks over Chameleons, and why 7 high Strength pieces is better than 6.
Necromantic
Finally back to great boxes! This box has everything, the only thing it might lack is a few more Zombies. But you have all your positionals, there is no Big Guy, and while the Stars for Death are fine, they’re not amazing nor required.
A, nothing more to say here. It’s a good all-arounder team that doesn’t really want anything other than maybe a bit more Zombie Bench.
Norse
Another good box! Fourteen models might seem like a steal, but two of them are Beer Boars, so they kinda don’t count. Still, you get everything you need. A few more Linemen never hurt, but one box does it just fine.
Their big guy, the Yhetee, is a nice pickup but a bit unreliable. Not great, not terrible, pick at your pleasure. The FW model is cool, as well. Really comes down to whether you want 5 Frenzy pieces or not in my opinion.
Also A, another great team to start with.
Nurgle
Unfortunately, the god of plague falls into the same issue as the god of skulls. You need those extra Pestigors, and almost inarguably more than Khorne needs the extra Khorngors. Pestigors are the only AG3+ piece on the team, and without them doing anything with the ball is difficult at best. Trying to carry the ball with Bloaters or Rotters is an extreme exercise in futility.
The Rotspawn is kinda mid in my opinion. Some people swear by how disruptive it is on the line, but I think the Bloaters do it just fine. Still, there’s the regular argument of “more strength is better”, but Really Stupid is a bad trait. Lots of great modelling opportunities, though, and the FW mini is extremely Nurgle.
I gotta go C. Get yourself two more disgusting, twisted Goats, you will feel much better.
Ogre
I both love and hate this box. The Gnoblars are great, and you get plenty, the Ogres in the box are good. But the whole point of the team is that you can play six Ogres. And the box comes with… four. Very disappointing.
From a power level discussion, the team also shines a lot with Star Players (especially since they get such a good selection). Again, while Stars are never required, they do help certain teams out a lot.
Like other Stunties, it’s a D. Needs more Big Guys.
Old World Alliance
While the team is considered a tougher one to play and can sometimes struggle in win rate, the box itself is quite good. You may end up wishing for some extra Human Linemen, but as with many teams, it’s not strictly necessary.
The main thing missing here is the Big Guy. They don’t miss them as much as Stunty teams or even arguably as much as Lizardmen, but an Ogre is a great addition and even the Tree can be ok if you want a Throw Teammate Option or just an insanely strong line of scrimmage.
B for these guys. You’ll want a Big Guy or extra Linemen for sure, but you can get a lot of fun in this box until then.
Orc
Remember everything I said about Humans? It all applies here for the same reasons. Monopose minis that all look like twins, only half of your most important positionals in the box, and no Big Guy (though the Troll is pretty middling on this team). Both being the original plastic starters means they’ve been dated a bit both in terms of what’s available for the team on sprue and how things look.
While you can play this from one box, having 3-4 Big Un Blockers on the line is a massive upgrade over just two, and four Blitzers is one of the better cores on any team.
C for the green lads. You’ll do alright out of one box, but missing those Blitzers and Blockers is like cooking blindfolded and with one hand.
Shambling Undead
Unlike Necromantic, these dead friends are missing a couple things. First of all, you really, really want all four Ghouls. Secondly, while the box gives a good amount of Skeletons and Zombies, the Zombies are generally superior in all the ways that matter, so you want more Zombies than Skeletons.
Luckily, there’s an easy solution! If you buy the Necromantic team and the Shambling Undead team, you get four Ghouls and all the Zombies either team will ever need! It’s a nice little win/win and if you paint them the same, they can also play College of Deaath in Dungeonbowl quite well.
I think I’ll go with a C rating here. You really, really want the Ghouls, though since your Wights are also AG3+ you can stumble along until you get them.
Skaven
Similar to Shambling Undead, you’re missing two runners, and Gutter Runners are arguably the best in the game at scoring. There’s plenty of builds that don’t run three Gutters, though, so you could play this relatively fine if you wanted.
The Rat Ogre is an awesome Big Guy that you often want, however. And there’s lots of good minis that work for it, including the FW one and some AoS/WHFB kitbashes. I think it’s more common to see Skaven with a Rogre than it is without one, but that could be my personal bias.
I think I have to go for a C for this box. You’ll see a massive upgrade with those extra Runners and the Rogre, you’ll feel quite hampered without them.
Snotlings
Recall everything I said about Stunty teams. How the boxes are nice (except Goblins) except you need max Big Guys to play anything close to a real game, and Stars will really boost your effectiveness.
That goes the same for Snots. Love this box, and the amount of dummies you get is great, but you need Trolls to function. And getting Hakflem and other stars will make you a lot more powerful (though might cause some grumbling).
Another easy D for Stunties. I hate to do it to them, but I stand by it.
Underworld Denizens
Actually not a completely useless box, especially after the recent Errata nerfing Snotlings on the team. The only thing really missing here is the Big Guy and the Snotlings, the former of which is basically required but the latter is a bit less of a necessity without Swarming.
Both the Troll and the Rogre have a place. Trolls are cheaper and can toss teammates, which is cool utility, but Rogres are terrifying but come with a higher price tag. I think one or the other is nearly required.
I’ll go with a C. You can play them out of one box decently, but you’ll feel much better with the stuff that’s missing.
Vampires
This is another amazing box! Not only do you blissfully have all your positionals, but it comes with a few extra Thralls because they get hurt all the time, and extras are very important to the team. 8 is probably plenty, though I know some people will occasionally pick up a few extra.
The Vargheist is the Big Guy here, and while it’s awesome and possibly my pick for the single best Big Guy in the game, it’s not necessary to run one. Like the Rat Ogre, the FW model is nice, there’s great third-party picks, and you may also decide to kitbash it out of other GW minis. Love this guy all around.
I’ll give this an A. I personally love using my Vargheist, but I think you’ll win a lot of games without one around if you just want to go one box.
Wood Elves
Our final Elf team is a bit of a confusing box. It is fine from a certain angle – you are missing two Catchers, but a lot of builds don’t run more than two because of the high price. You get both of your Wardancers, which is really the heart and soul of the team, but due to their high price, sometimes you’ll end up starting a League with more than 6 Linemen in order to cut down on cost and make them fit.
I haven’t made a big distinction in other teams, but here the distinction between League and Tournaments is quite large. This box is perfectly fine for a Tournament build out of one box. There’s lots of options depending on the Rulespack, and another box or Stars will give more options, but the one box is great.
For a League however, I think it’s pretty bad. You often start with more than 6 linemen just to cheapen up and get Rerolls. You’ll need more Linemen to replace your injured or killed positionals. And if you manage to get the team into long-term development, you’ll eventually want that third and fourth Catcher.
There’s a big guy here, the Treeman. It’s bad. You can get one and play it for fun, but it’s really, really not good on a Wood Elf team. Please learn from my mistakes. I have taken it to both tournaments and leagues, and every time I curse the bloody thing.
I’ll go with a B here for Tournaments, C for Leagues. I know I haven’t done that for any other team but it’s my list, what are you gonna do about it?
Conclusion
GW provides currently 25 Team Boxes for the 29 (30 if you play NAF) legal teams in the game. Some of them are great to just pick up off the shelf, paint, and start playing! Some are… less impressive. Hopefully this article gave you a good feel for which ones are which and how to get started in Blood Bowl on a budget.
It hurts me to rate all the Stunty teams so low since I love Stunties in Blood Bowl, but the way they play without Big Guys is… badly. That said, for non-Stunty teams, you can see that GW has gotten much better at making boxes work out of a single box or one box plus a minimal purchase. This is great for new players wanting to use the more modern teams, but is a bit frustrating for the teams that came out around early in the 2016 release cycle.
But ultimately, even if you have to buy two boxes or one box and a Big Guy or two, Blood Bowl is a very affordable game on top of being extremely fun! I hope people take the opportunity to pick up some players and a pitch and roll some dice with friends. Nuffle bless you!
