Aftermath Blood Bowl League - Season IV

• There will be three tiers: the Premiership, the Championship and then 2 or 3 Conference divisions below that (depending on the number of entrants).
• The Premiership will consist of the top 4 teams from Season III's campaign together with the returning Dark Lands Gooners and Stop It!
• The Championship will be made up from the bottom three Premiership teams plus the three winners of the Conference play-offs.
• There will be as many Conferences as needed to provide divisions of 5 to 7 teams, the exact number dependent on the number of entrants.
• Any gaps due to the retirement of teams will be filled by promoting suitable Conference teams, ensuring that no coach has more than one team in any one division (and only if the coach in question wants their team to be promoted).

Only teams entering Season IV's conferences from the NEB will be subject to capping (see section 5 of the rules below).

Promotions and Relegations

At the end of the season the bottom two Premiership teams will be relegated to the Championship and replaced by the top two Championship teams. As many Championship teams as there are Conferences will be relegated and replaced by the winners of each Conference.

At the end of Season IV, two additional teams will be promoted from the Conferences to the Championship to take the Championship up to 8 teams. These will be the two best performing runners-up (after taking into account the 1 team per division rule).

Mid-season Cups

Approximately halfway through the season the leagues take a mid-season break during which the Spike! Magazine Trophy and DungeonBowl cups are contested. Coaches can choose whether to enter one of these cups or simply take a few weeks off (league teams taking time off will recover MNGs while those taking part in the cups will not). Both Spike! and Dungeonbowl are open to non-league teams to make up numbers to a maximum of 16 in each competition but a coach can only enter a team in one of the cups. Where there are fewer than 16 entrants then the lowest ranked teams (based on rankings at the end of the previous season) will play a preliminary round to determine the quarter-finals. e.g. if there are 12 entrants then the bottom 8 teams will play to determine the 4 teams to join the other 4 in the quarter-finals; if there are only 5 entrants then the bottom 2 play for a place in the semi-finals). If fewer than 4 teams enter a cup then that competition will not be played (but existing "holders" will lose any associated benefits).

The DungeonBowl will be played on a normal-sized pitch but underground - so there'll be no weather (any Changing Weather result on the kick-off table automatically means the ball just bounces twice). If both coaches agree then the final can be played in a "proper" dungeon.

The weather table for Spike! is 2: Sweltering Heat; 3-4 Very Sunny; 5-11 Nice; 12 Pouring Rain as it's played in (usally) sunny Estalia.

End of season Cups

The top four Premiership teams at the end of each season contest the Blood Bowl. Prizes as per LRB5.

The two relegated Premiership teams, all Championship teams and top Conference teams* (for a total of 16) contest the Chaos Cup. Prizes are as per LRB5.

If a coach has a team in the Blood Bowl he may not enter the Chaos Cup. If a coach has two teams qualifying for the Chaos Cup then he must choose which one will actually compete - this may open up a slot for the next best placed Conference team.

Other awards

The Spike! magazine Player of the Year will be awarded to the player who has gained the most SPP over the course of a season. It's for league players only and permanently gives the player the Fan Favourite trait (which adds 30,000gc to his value). A player can win the award more than once but only gains the benefit once. If more than one player scores the same number of SPP over the course of a season then a vote will be held to see which one wins the award.

Aftermath Blood Bowl League - League Rules 

1. Ruleset

1.1 The ABBL uses the Blood Bowl Competition Rules as hosted by GW with the addition of three pages from LRB5 - Page 5 (which defines correct use of the range ruler) and pages 32-33 for the benefits of winning a Major - and the three BBRC/NAF approved teams which don't appear in the rulebook (Chaos Pact, Slann and Underworld rosters).

1.2 The six rosters described on the "NEB Extras" page are not legal for league play but are, instead, offered as amusing options for friendly games only.

2. Building your team

2.1 Your starting roster must have between 11 and 16 players (plus as many backroom/cheerleading staff and rerolls as you can afford). Obviously numbers may drop below 11 during the league - but can never exceed 16.

2.2 All teams start with zero Fan Factor and you can't buy any - you'll just have to earn fans by not losing games! [HR]

2.3 You are strongly advised to develop a team in the NEB before applying for it to join the league (but if you enjoy having teams destroyed then it's your call).

3. Scoring

3.1 Teams score 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.

3.2 If teams are level on points, the positions are decided by the combined touchdown and casualty difference then on touchdowns scored.

4. Schedule

4.1 Coaches are expected to play one game each month (with each team, if running more than one league team).

5. Capping

5.1 While the league structure may vary from season to season to accommodate coaches joining and leaving the league, the intention is for there to be at least three tiers. The lowest tier will have a maximum starting Team Value (including cash in the bank) to stop a team starting in the league more valuable than any of its rivals. [HR]

5.2 Fan Factor can never be voluntarily reduced to trim Team Value.

6. Conflicts of interest

6.1 Coaches may, if they wish, run more than one league team. [HR]

6.2 A coach may never have two teams in the same division. If a situation arises where one team gets promoted into a division containing their coach's other team, then the promotion must either be declined or the coach's other team relegated or retired. [HR]

7. Changing a coach

7.1 If a team is retired, it can be taken over by another coach, as long as the original coach agrees and it won't upset the divisions (i.e. no one has more than 1 team in the same division). [HR]

8. Casual Play

8.1 Any coaches who have said that they wish to run a team for 'now and again' type games (whether on it's own or in addition to team/s in the league) are free to play as many games as they like with this team against other non-league teams using an open format (i.e. play who you want, when you want but you can't play the same opponent more than twice in a row). These results will be recorded in the Never-ending Bloodbath table. League teams cannot play friendly matches except between sesons and only then if the rules for their division allows for this. [HR]

9. Time Limits

9.1 It is expected that coaches in the top division of the league will be play matches with the usual 4 minute turn time limit. It is up to the coaches to agree whether or not to use a clock to ensure this.

9.2 Lower ranked divisions may have longer time limits, so as not to penalise inexperienced coaches. [HR]

9.3 If a turn limit is reached, the currently active player is allowed to finish his action. [HR]

10. Most Valuable Player awards

10.1 The MVP for each game is awarded randomly for each team.

10.2 The award can be given to anyone who took part in the match (i.e. was on the field at some point). [HR]

10.3 This includes any mercenaries, star players or journeymen but doesn't include any players who spent the whole game on the bench.

10.4 MVP can be (and surprisingly often is) awarded posthumously.

11. Selling players on (last chance!)

11.1 Before starting Season IV teams are allowed to "sell" players and will get, in return, their nominal value taking into account skills gained and stat increases. Unfortunately, their values will also take into account both permanent and niggling injuries (e.g. if your player's lost a point of Strength, he'll be worth $50,000 less than he would have been). Players with niggling injuries have their value reduced by $10,000 per niggle. Any players sold will be leaving to join teams in other leagues and cannot be signed by other ABBL teams (although if uninjured they may appear in the list of journeymen or mercenaries).[HR]

11.2 Once Season IV has started it will no longer be possible to sell a player - either mid-season or even between future seasons. If you need to free up a space in the roster then retiring a player's the only option available.

12. Journeymen

12.1 Journeymen are available to league team to stand in for players who are missing the next game if the team would otherwise have fewer than 11 players

12.2 Journeymen can also be used to replace deceased or retired players only if if the team cannot afford to hire a permanent replacement. If a team can afford to hire the cheapest player available then no journeyman can be used to replace a dead or retired team-mate. [HR]
For example, Altdorf Aces have 11 players. In their first game one blitzer gets a Miss Next Game injury while another is killed. They get 50,000 gp winnings from the game. The Aces will be allocated a Journeyman to replace the MNG blitzer but because they can afford to replace the dead one (albeit with a lineman) then they would not be allowed a journeyman and may choose to start the next game with 10 players.

Downloads

• Blood Bowl Competition Rules (5.1MB)
• Living Rulebook version 5 (for pages 5, 32 and 33) (No longer available online)
• TeamRoster spreadsheet (347kb)
• TeamBuilder spreadsheet (87kb)
• Blank match record sheet [52kb]