Amazon, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Lizardmen, Norse, Shambling Undead, Skaven and Wood Elves.

Humans, Necromantic Horrors, Orcs, Tomb Kings, Underworld Denizens and Vampires.

Chaos Dwarves, Elven Union, High Elves, Imperial Nobility, Khorne and Slann.

Black Orcs, Chaos Chosen, Chaos Renegades, Nurgle and Old World Alliance .

Gnomes, Goblins,  Halflings, Ogres and Snotlings.

Teams in Division 1 will have a cap of 1,500 TV.

Teams in Division 2 will have a cap of 1,400 TV .

Teams in Division 3 will have a cap of 1,300 TV .

Teams in Division 3 will have a cap of 1,200 TV .

Any coach can place a bounty, either anonymously or publicly.

A bounty takes the form of an amount of gold the proposing coach wishes to put up (from their own treasury) when certain criteria is achieved.

For example, coach A wanted to encourage the removal of a certain player from another team, they offer 20,000 gold pieces to the coach who causes a CAS to that player. Upon completion of the bounty, a Commissioner transfers the gold.

Its Blood Bowl…bribes, bounties and ungentlemanly conduct is what we’re here for isn’t it?

At any point during the league season. Coaches can offer multiple bounties as often as they wish.

Coaches confirm the details with a Commissioner. The bounty is then announced (anonymously if preferred).

The Commissioners ensure the bounty is paid, but its the instigating coaches responsibility to monitor the status of the bounty.

Matches should be played in Chippenham. However, if both coaches agree, matches can be played elsewhere.

All matches must be arranged via the relevant match scheduling channels linked below in order to provide full visibility for staff.

If a coach experiences difficulty arranging a match, please contact your Divisional Officer for support.

Playing league matches ahead (i.e. before a rounds start date) is allowed provided both coaches have played the same number of matches.

Permission must be sought, from Staff, for league match extensions (i.e. playing a match after the end of a round pertaining to the game in question). Small extension of up to 3 days are generally acceptable provided a date has been agreed upon by the end date of the relevant round. Longer extentions are less likely to be granted.

If an extension is not agreed, the match must be conceded via the following principles.

Coaches will be allowed to concede 1 match per league season.

There are 2 types of concession. a) Those which occur prior to a match occurring and b) those which occur during the course of the match. Both categories follow the rules laid out on page 67 of the BB2020 rule book. However, for concession which occur during the course of a match, the D6 roll (per the rule book) to determine whether players quit the team will occur for the most experienced player on the roster irrespective of their number of advancements. If 2 or more players are of identical experience, one is chosen at random. These rolls will be performed by a Staff member on Discord.

If a coach finds their team reduced to 3 players or fewer, they may concede without penalty as per ‘Set-up’ rules detailed on page 40 of the BB2020 rule book.

Mechanically, concessions are processed within TourPlay whereby the match is started as normal (weather, fans, inducements are completed as normal), but the conceding coach then chooses the ‘concede match’ option.

Commissioners may intervene, where coaches cannot reach an accord, and process any concessions themselves. Commissioners will base their decision on who has made most effort to get the match played per the approved match organisation channels detailed above.

If a coach concedes more than 1 game within the league season, that coach forfeits their place and entry fee in the current league season.

League season entry fee will be £10 for teams joining from round 1. Any coaches who join the later (i.e. as replacements for coaches who drop out) will pay a proportion of this entry fee on a case-by-case basis. Coaches who drop out forfeit their entry fee.

The £10 entry fee covers a) the costs of Tourplay, which has a monthly subscription fee based on the number of registered players/administrators attached to a league and b) the swag gift given to coaches participating in the league.

The FB Cup is free to join!

The Dungeon Bowl League is free to join!

Forge Breakers is a Blood Bowl tabletop community, however, in extreme circumstances FUMBBL may be permitted only with both express permission of the Commissioners and agreement from both coaches related to the match in question. If “Coach B” doesn’t want to use FUMBBL, their veto is final.

All other digital alternatives (i.e. Blood Bowl 2, Blood Bowl 3, Tabletop Simulator) for playing a match are forbidden.

In scenarios where a coach is either removed from the league or they’ve stepped down, a replacement will be sought by the league commissioners. Priority/first refusal is given to coaches who have been part of the community for a longer period of time.

If suitable replacements cannot be found, ‘admin’ teams will be drafted in as required. An ‘admin’ team is a 2nd team entered into the relevant competition, coached by a commissioner (or other designated coach).

All coaches must be registered on the Forge Breaker Discord server. Link can be found in the footer of each page on this website.

Discord is the primary communications channel for match organisation, league announcements, rules queries and other general BB/hobby chat.

Each coach should ensure pitch, dice (2D6, 3 block dice, D8, D16), rulebook and access to Tourplay availability for their matches.

All models should be recognizable and distinguishable. If you are using proxies, please ensure your opponent is aware of this.

For the regular season there is no painting requirement in place. However all teams playing in the end of season playoffs should be painted to a 3-colour minimum standard.

Forge Breakers Blood Bowl matches use the Blood Bowl 2020 ruleset and FAQs. FAQs released during the season are considered legal, however any new team rosters are not valid.

In the event of rules queries during a match, please post these to the rules-queries channel in Discord and we will try and get an answer as fast as possible. More experienced players can be asked to referee matches between less experienced players, if desired.

Upon completion of the regular season, the league season enters the ‘play-off’ phase. This phase resolves the overall champion, and which coaches are promoted and relegated between divisions.

Sign-ups for the subsequent season feed into establishing the details of any promotion and relegation play-offs. The sign-up window will normally close at the end of the normal season to allow Staff a clear picture from which to plan the promotion and relegation play-offs.

Note, the championship play-off, contested between the top 2 teams in Division 1 is not impacted by sign-ups for the subsequent season.

Division placement is at a coach level, rather than team. Re-drafting or entering a new team does not impact division placement.

Where a coach participates in over 50% of the season, their finishing league position will determine their divisional placement and/or whether they are considered for involvement in play-offs.

If a coach participates in 50% or less of the season fixtures they will not be included in any determination of play-offs and they will be treated as a new coach for divisional placement in the following season.

Only points gained by that coach will contribute to their league position.

The top 4 coaches in Division 1 enter into a knock-out semi-final with the winners battling it out for the Forge Breaker League trophy. Each teams final league placing determine the semi-final draw: P1 v P4 and P2 v P3.

Movement between divisions is an important element of our goal to ensuring fun and competitive matches between coaches in sensibly sized divisions. All coaches are equally valued and whilst coaches in Division 1 will likely be more experienced compared to the average Division 3 coach, our aim is to ensure all coaches have fun matches irrespective of experience, skill level or motivation.

For Season IV, we will endeavour to automatically promote and relegate 2 teams from each division. Play-offs will then occur with the 2nd bottom places team of the higher league entering into a play-off against the 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed teams in the lower division. The winner of this play-off is then promoted into the higher division.

In reality this approach relies on sign-up numbers for the subsequent season. If the number of returning coaches allow, promotion /relegation play-offs will occur per the approach detailed above. However, the requirement to ensure balanced divisional numbers trumps any requirements for a) play-offs or b) any limits on promotions and relegations numbers (i.e. we might look to promote more teams).

The league is constantly evolving and, whilst the guidelines will outlined above will be used to help staff determine the play offs, there may be instances where decisions have to be made based on the best interest of the league and it’s members.

As covered above; the real world realisation of the play-offs depends on the sign-ups for the following season. Sign-up numbers directly impact the need to ensure each division in the following season contains a balanced number of teams. Therefore, the details included below are the ‘best case’ scenario.

In season IV ‘mega stars’ will be banned from all teams except the following stunty teams:

Coaches are responsible for policing this rule. If your opponent hires a megastar you must remind them of this rule. If both coaches forget and the match is played, staff will remind you in the first instance. Further transgressions will result in points deductions.

The ‘mega star’ list is as follows:

Coaches will have the following inducements options for league and FB Cup games:

The following tie-break order will be used on TourPlay:

One area of feedback we’ve received recently has been around the skill delta in Division 3. Our divisional, promotion/relegation set up is designed to help ensure coaches of similar skill levels face each other each season. Because all ‘new’ coaches enter the season in Division 3 irrespective of whether they’re brand new to Blood Bowl or have played loads of matches (so are an ‘experienced coach’), this means we’re exposed to a variance in skill levels higher than is ideal. To help address this, we’re planning to implement the following rule when assigning coaches to divisions at the beginning of Season IV.

The first element of this new rule is to define the term ‘Experienced Coaches,’ to remove any subjectivity, as follows:

a) coaches with 30 tabletop games played, or
b) coaches with a positive NAF record after at least 9 matches played, or
c) coaches who didn’t participate in the previous Forge Breakers season and whose last active season was played in Division 1, or
d) any coach who previously qualified for a Forge Breakers league championship playoff.

Note, any coach who has previously dropped out of any Forge Breaker division mid season is excluded from being an ‘experienced coach’ and must enter from Division 4.

Now we’ve covered what makes an ‘experienced coach’, lets look at the rule itself for Season IV:

‘Experienced coaches’ will be inducted into Division 3 should re-draft numbers allow and where there is no impact on promoting an appropriate number of teams from Division 4 i.e. the experienced coach(es) do not prevent Division 4 coach(es) from being naturally promoted (i.e. for finishing first or 2nd). IF re-draft numbers do not allow a sensible application of this option, the experienced coaches go into Division 4. Any natural play-offs involving coaches who played in the preceding season will not include ‘experienced coaches’.

If we receive sign ups from multiple coaches who fit the ‘experienced coach’ criteria we accommodate all in the same manner in the first instance, or allow the experienced coaches to contest a play-off for the position(s) in Division 3 This play-off series will only involve the ‘experienced coaches’. This scenario will be dealt with as required and we’ll use the most recent Forge Breakers tournament ruleset for the teams used in such playoffs.

‘Friendlies’ are deemed ‘matches which take place between coaches using their league team roster – and which are impacted by the ‘friendly’ match events/outcomes. (i.e. injuries/MVP awards etc)’. In league seasons friendly matches using this definition are not permitted.

‘Exhibition’ matches, using rosters independent from league season teams, are encouraged and can be played as often as coaches want.